Turkey: We're clearly closer to the front

By BAR Honda
August 24 2005

BAR Honda's Jenson Button finished in the points for the 5th successive race in Turkey today, bringing his BAR Honda 007 home in 5th position and the team closer to 6th place in the Championship.

Although Takuma finished just outside the points in 9th place, credit must go to both drivers for two gutsy race performances which certainly helped to make up for the disappointment of yesterday's qualifying.

After lining up in frustrating grid slots of 13th and 20th respectively, both drivers were on fire from the off, making up places lap after lap until they were lying 3rd and 7th by their first pitstops. In a perfectly executed two-stop strategy, Jenson extracted the maximum from the car and his racecraft to deliver a performance he later declared as one of his best this season. It was however tinged with some disappointment at the thought of what he might have achieved with a higher-placed grid slot.

The team split the two drivers' strategies and brought Takuma in at the end of the parade lap, refuelling him for a single stop on lap 29. He drove a faultless race but despite hunting down Christian Klien to the finish he was not quite able to secure a point.

"This was the best race of the year so far for our team," said Gil de Ferran, BAR Honda's Sporting Director. "Both Jenson and Takuma drove faultlessly, aggressively and very fast indeed. Our engineers' inventive strategy paid good dividends, especially in the case of Taku. The pitstops were executed very well and, last but far from least, Honda once again built an engine that remained strong throughout the race. One can't help wondering what could have happened had we started further up the grid!"

"That was a very exciting race - watching both drivers fight through the field was excellent!" added Shuhei Nakamoto, Honda Racing Development's Engineering Director. "We are clearly closer to the front here than we have been in the past. If we continue our development and qualify well in the next races we can maintain our challenge for a race win this year."