Planet-F1

Sat: Honda, Force India

Saturday 6th September 2008

A disappointing qualifying for Honda and Force India saw both teams fail to make it through Q1 in Belgium.

Honda
Rubens Barrichello: We have to be pleased with what we achieved in Qualifying today, particularly given that we have been pretty much at the bottom of the timesheets so far this weekend. It was a good lap and a good effort from the team. It's just a shame that the car is not able to be more competitive here."

Jenson Button: My first lap in Qualifying was the first lap that I did today so in a way it was nice to be able to beat some of our competitors and be close to my team-mate. It was a decent session for us, at the level of performance which the car is showing this weekend, and we will at least be starting from the clean side of the grid. Rain tomorrow would make the race more interesting but unfortunately it's not looking likely."

Force India
Adrian Sutil: It was a very close qualifying today, with seven hundredths to the two Hondas and also very close to 16th place. I think we expected to be at this pace and we can be quite happy with the performance. We knew that Honda would be our closest competitor and it was close. We know we have a fast car on the straights here and I think we can do some overtaking and have a good race tomorrow."

Giancarlo Fisichella: We were struggling a little with the grip level in the qualifying session, but the balance wasn't too bad. I had a bit of traffic on the last run and also some problems with the rear tyres graining and I lost the rear end in three places, so I lost at least three to four tenths. I think there was a possibility to get 16th position, but tomorrow there is a good chance to move up some places."