By Phil Huff (06/03/2004)
March 7 2004

Lucky Strike BAR Honda had a successful final qualifying session, and it ended with drivers Jenson Button and Takuma Sato in fourth and seventh position respectively. "I really enjoyed that," commented lead driver Jenson Button. "It's always difficult to achieve the perfect lap but I'm very happy. It's a little bit disappointing to miss out on third after I matched Montoya's time. I had switched to the T car for qualifying after a problem with my race car in practice this morning. Under the new rules we also had to switch the engine from my race car so it was a race against time for us to be ready in time to start qualifying. The team did a very good job though. If we have the reliability in the race tomorrow then we're definitely looking strong for points."

"I'm very pleased with my lap - the best I've had this weekend," said teammate Takuma Sato. "It was a little bit difficult this morning because we had a mechanical problem with the gearbox, so I lost quite a bit of track time. We made a set up change prior to the first qualifying run and the car didn't feel too good, but we switched back to the practice set-up and I just felt very comfortable for the second session. I'm really looking forward to the race tomorrow now."

"Jenson told me several weeks ago that he thought he would be P3 in Melbourne, but he obviously didn't predict a dead heat!" joked David Richards, the BAR team boss. "We have had our fair share of glitches over the last couple of days, and having to switch Jenson to the T-Car with just an hour to go, was not exactly as planned. This year that means changing the engine as well, but the faultless way the team dealt with it shows how far we have come, and is further proof that we have the ability to challenge the established order. I thought Taku's time was superb when you take into consideration that he has done the least number of laps of all the drivers this weekend. The fact that we have both cars in the first four rows puts us in great shape for the race tomorrow."

"Both drivers did very well in the first qualifying session of the year," enthused techincal chief Geoff Willis. "Takuma lost his last run of the morning on new tyres when we discovered a problem with fourth gear. In his first run in qualifying he was not happy with the set-up and we made a number of changes, which helped considerably. Jenson had a productive morning but then during the break before qualifying we discovered that his chassis had been damaged when he ran wide over the kerb. The mechanics did a great job to swap his engine over to the T-car and get him out in under an hour. This is a good start to the weekend and we feel that we are in a good position for the race, but the real challenge will be tomorrow."

"We're happy," added Shuhei Nakamoto, the Honda Engineering Director. "BAR and ourselves have worked well as a team to overcome a few problems earlier today and make this result possible. Clearly tomorrow is when it counts and we will be refocusing all our efforts on that tonight. It feels good to be starting the season from the second and fourth rows."