Honda Testing, 25th January 2007, Circuit de Catalunya, Jenson Button drives the new Honda RA107.

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Teams

• Honda

Drivers

• Jenson Button
• Rubens Barrichello

Having been sidelined less than a lap into his first run with the newly-unveiled Honda RA107, Jenson Button was finally able to get some serious mileage under his belt as the car enjoyed a more successful conclusion to its maiden test.

The all-black machine - a new livery for which is due to be unveiled at another 'media event' in the coming weeks - completed its first week of public running at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona with Button at the wheel, team-mate Rubens Barrichello having conducted the majority of the early shakedown work.

The Brazilian enjoyed a productive day on track in Spain on Wednesday, ahead of Thursday's official unveiling, when the press got its first real glimpse of the machine.

"It's been an exciting test for us this week and I'm glad to have had the chance to drive the new RA107," Barrichello noted. "The whole team has done a great job and the car is already on the same pace as last year's car, despite not having all of its development parts yet.

"Obviously, there is a lot of work to do to get us ready for the start of the season but, from my laps this week, I really enjoyed the feeling of the car and I am look forward to next week's test in Valencia to continue its development."

Although the programme was basically to give the car its first run out and ensure that all the basic systems were functioning well, various engine cooling evaluations were undertaken to prepare for forthcoming 'warmer' events, including the two Bahrain tests and the first three 'flyaway' races.

Barrichello drove the car for the first two days, before Button, after his false start, took over for the final session. Between them, the two drivers completed 178 laps, equating to some 823km.

"It's been a very productive day, which was really about running through all the simple things with the car such as basic set-up changes and getting the balance to my liking," Button reported.

"We achieved that pretty early on, which is positive and enabled us to cover a good number of laps. It's a long way to go until the first race and there is a lot to do and many improvements to be made so, for one day in the car, it was productive, but it is just the beginning."

The team also ran the 2006-spec RA106 car for three days in Barcelona. The car, which is due to reach the end of its test programme in the next few weeks, had Button at the wheel on Wednesday, with reserve driver Christian Klien completing the programme on Thursday and Friday, and was used to evaluate new electronic control settings and Bridgestone tyres.

"The RA107 programme this week focused on the standard control runs that you have to undertake with any new car," confirmed engineering director Jacky Eeckelaert. "We also checked the cooling and oil systems for both the engine and the gearbox to ensure that everything is working correctly.

"We had a small issue with the car on Thursday, which stopped Jenson out on track, but we quickly established that it merely a minor problem related to the rebuild of the car overnight following Rubens' laps on Wednesday.

"Rubens went on to complete a further 51 laps on Thursday afternoon, with Jenson adding another 86 laps to the new chassis on Friday.

"The aero data collected from the RA107 this week shows a very good correlation with the model data from the wind tunnel, so we are pleased with that. Now that the car has gone through all of its reliability checks, we will start work on set-up evaluation in Valencia next week."