Button encouraged by Honda

Brit hopeful of another points haul in Istanbul

Last updated: 8th May 2008

jenson button honda spanish gp 27/4/2008

Button: positives

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Jenson Button said he was encouraged by Honda's performance in the Spanish Grand Prix, which saw the Briton grabbed both his and the team's first points of the season.

After a trying 2007, Honda entered this year's Championship with realistic goals that included becoming regular points-scorers as the season progresses.

The team battled to achieve as much in the opening three races, showing signs of promise and yet failing to turn improvements to their RA108 chassis into points.

Button, though, managed to achieve the feat in Spain, where he finished in sixth place.

"It was very encouraging," he said during Thursday's FIA press conference for the Turkish Grand Prix.

"The first few races in qualifying were reasonable but I struggled to have a good performance in the races, basically because twice I crashed at Turn One.

"It was nice to get to the end of a grand prix and not scoring just one point but get three points on board. It was a good race and the pace of the car was reasonable.

"There is a lot of work to do but the positives are that we are improving and each race we go to we feel we are getting more out of the car."

Reliability

As to whether he can finish in the points again this weekend, the Honda driver admitted it could depend on the reliability of other teams.

"We have some tweaks that should give us some time and this track should be a bit better for our car than Barcelona, which is quite bumpy," Button added.

"I'm looking for a good performance in qualifying and then we will see. If everyone finishes then it will be difficult to score points, but we will aim for points for sure."