B.A.R. Honda’s Button and Sato finish third and fifth in Bahrain

Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda’s Jenson Button drove another stunning race to score his second podium in a row, bringing his B.A.R Honda 006 home in third place at the inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix. Takuma Sato also drove an impressive race, crossing the line in fifth position, bringing the total number of championship points scored by B.A.R Honda this weekend to 10.

At the start of the race Button fell back one place to seventh behind the Renault of Jarno Trulli, but by lap six had moved up into sixth place due to Ralf Schumacher (Williams) spinning off. The Briton pitted on lap 12 from the lead as others had pitted before him and following a slightly lengthy 12 second stop, as a result of a sticking wheel nut on his left rear tyre, he rejoined in eighth position behind Sato. Two laps later Button was running in sixth due to the second round of pit stops and lap 17 he overtook his team-mate for fifth position as Sato ran wide. Button was up into third by lap 26 when he came in for his second scheduled stop (10.1 seconds), rejoining in seventh place. Again the stop was longer than scheduled as the damaged wheel nut was replaced.

The B.A.R Honda driver was hot on the tail of Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams) and both men came in for their third and final stop on lap 40, Button running in fourth place. His 8.9 second stop meant the Briton was able to leapfrog Trulli, who pitted one lap later. Button rejoined the action in fourth position and a thrilling battle for third ensued with Montoya, culminating in the Honda-powered racer diving past the Columbian on lap 49. With eight laps to go Button set his sights on the second podium finish of his career and went to achieve just that, crossing the line in third place and scoring six championship points for himself and the team.

Takuma Sato made a great start from fifth on the grid, snatching fourth position from Ralf Schumacher by turn one. As the German battled to get past Sato on lap six, the two cars touched, forcing Schumacher off the track. Sato managed to continue but fell back to fifth place. The Japanese driver came in for his first of three stops (8 seconds) on lap 11 from third place as others had pitted before him, rejoining in seventh. By lap 14 Sato was running in fifth position due to the second pit stop sequence but three laps later ran wide, sustaining damage to his car. The Honda-powered driver pitted on the following lap for fuel, tyres and a new nosecone, and rejoined in 14th place. Sato had made his way up into seventh by lap 28 and, despite damage to his rear wing, the Japanese driver pulled off a brilliant manoeuvre past David Coulthard’s McLaren for sixth place on lap 33.

Sato came in for the last of his three pit stops on lap 38, rejoining in eighth place, and moving up to sixth when Renault’s Fernando Alonso and Ralf Schumacher pitted on lap 40 and 45. With just three laps to go Honda-powered Sato overtook Montoya for fifth place, the Williams driver clearly slowing with a problem. Sato pushed hard to fight off Alonso in the closing laps and brought his B.A.R Honda 006 home in fifth position, to score his first championship points of the 2004 season.

Michael Schumacher won the 57 lap Bahrain Grand Prix with Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello and B.A.R Honda’s Jenson Button joining him on the podium to taste the Warrad, a non-alcoholic fruit drink specially formulated for the event. Jarno Trulli (Renault) and B.A.R Honda’s Takuma Sato finished fourth and fifth while Fernando Alonso (Renault), Ralf Schumacher (Williams) and Jaguar’s Mark Webber completed the point scoring positions.