By Phil Huff
January 25 2006

Honda Racing F1's brand new RA106 car has performed exceptionally well on its first day on track, ending up with the third and fifth best times, splitting the two Renault cars.

With Honda managing to prepare two of the new cars for this first test, both Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button got to run some shakedown tests, before some reliability testing added a few more laps.

Barrichello, new to the team for 2006, ran 52 laps, setting a best time of 1:16.737, just over a second behind the leading Ferrari of Felipe Massa, although Massa's car is a 2004 model fitted with a V8 engine.

Jenson Button went slightly faster, setting a best lap of 1:16.578, just under a second behind Massa. Encouragingly, he was between Renault's Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella, just 0.378s behind the world champion. Button managed a stunning 72 laps through the day.

Overall, Honda Racing F1 could barely have asked for a better start. The new car has instantly proven to be both quick and reliable, with few gremlins affecting the first runs.

Honda continue at Barcelona until Thursday.