Honda introduce improvements at Monaco

The team had been expected to run what essentially would have been a 'B-spec' car for the Canadian GP, although it would not have been designated as such. However, encouraging results from testing last week prompted the team to rush the developments through for use in Monaco this weekend.

"There never was a B-car, as it were," Honda F1 CEO Nick Fry told autosport.com. "The new car thing was probably overplayed a little bit. A lot of the improvements that were planned for Canada, in fact, are on the car this weekend.

"If you look at the sidepods of the car you'll see that they now feature a big undercut, like some of the other cars. So we've changed the side of the car, and the aerodynamics of the car, very substantially.

"Originally that was planned for Canada, but it was tested on the track at Paul Ricard and on the first run of the first day, Christian [Klien] and Rubens [Barrichello] liked it very much.

"So we really have pulled out all the stops. The team literally have been working 24 hours a day to get two cars here. We don't yet have a spare car in that configuration, so if anything had happened to them, we would have had a few problems.

"But a lot of what was meant to be in Canada is now here, and it has contributed a lot towards our improved performance in qualifying."

Aided by David Coulthard's penalty, Honda managed to get both of its drivers through to Q3 in yesterday's qualifying session, with Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button set to line up on the grid alongside each other in ninth and tenth respectively.