Brawn on top three again

After struggling for grip at Silverstone, the Nürburgring and the Hungaroring, Brawn GP were delighted to be back in the top three with both cars in second practice for the European Grand Prix in Valencia. Jenson Button led the charge from team-mate Rubens Barrichello as only Fernando Alonso came between the white cars and the top of the timesheets.Brawn returns to top three.

First and fourth became second and third for Rubens Barrichello and championship leader Jenson Button on Friday as the tyre problems which so dogged the team over the last three race weekends looked to have all but disappeared.

"We've had a reasonably good first day of practice and it's encouraging to see that the car seems to be on the pace again," commented a relieved Button, who leads the Drivers' standings by 18.5 points from Mark Webber.

"The focus of our programme was on setup checks and back-to-back evaluations to confirm that the work done back at the factory after our shutdown was in the right direction; there is still some work needed on the setup before qualifying as I'm not completely happy with the balance but, all in all, the pace of the car seems reasonably good."

Rubens Barrichello also enjoyed a positive day, which included taking first blood by topping the morning session. "It feels great to be back to what seems to be a competitive level of pace," said the Paulista. "The two practice sessions went well today with a lot of work achieved on both sides of the garage. I'm pretty happy with the data that we collected and with the way that the car developed over the course of the day - if we can continue in this direction it should be a good weekend."

Source: GP Update