Mixed weather conditions greet the team in Canada

The Honda Racing F1 Team took to the track for the opening day of practice at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve today. Running its RA108s in low downforce aerodynamic trim for the first time this year, the team used today’s three hours of track time to hone the cars to the demands of the 4.361km (2.709-mile) track.
Early morning rain over Montreal resulted in the first 1.5-hour practice session taking place in damp conditions. Both RA108s started on the Bridgestone wet tyre then switched to the grooved tyre later in the session when the track dried out. The drivers completed just 17 laps each.
In the second session, the team focused on tyre comparison work once some rubber had been laid down and the track had become representative.
Both drivers completed 39 laps apiece in the afternoon, with Rubens Barrichello ending up 13th on the timesheets, with a fastest time of 1:17.462s, and Jenson Button 19th with a best of 1:17.842s.
"We have been trying to make the car work with very low levels of downforce today, in order to be able to run at a competitive pace,” said Rubens. “We have achieved a better set-up over the course of the day, although the rear is still lacking a little bit of stability at the moment. We don't know where we stand yet for the remainder of the weekend, however I am happy with the progress that we made today."
Jenson was less optimistic following today’s running, commenting, “The car felt unbalanced and was difficult to drive in both sessions. I really struggled with the rear end which was causing problems with snap oversteer and we just lacked any form of pace. So there is a lot of work to do before we can feel confident with the car for qualifying and the race.”
“These are the same tyres as Monaco and historically this track has proved a tough endurance test for them,” said Head of Race & Test Engineering Steve Clark. “In today’s low grip conditions the reverse seemed true and even the super soft compound was difficult to bring up to temperature.”
The drivers and engineers will now analyse the data from today before fine-tuning the cars in tomorrow morning’s final practice session. Commenting on the outlook for Sunday’s GP, Clark is looking to capitalise on the high endurance of the RA108: “The weather forecast for the weekend is for much higher temperatures which will change the shape of the race. Canada is a race where we usually see a great deal of attrition and we hope that our excellent reliability will promote us into the points on Sunday.”

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