Honda are hoping for intervention from the safety car in today’s European Grand Prix after a disastrous showing in qualifying left Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello languishing at the back of the field with their work cut out in the 57-lap race.

Mark Webber has branded this season’s Safety Car rules a joke. Webber believes that Piquet’s podium place at Hockenheim was sheer luck, mainly thanks to the Safety Car rules.

“The safety car threw up a bizarre result and I think the rules are a joke,” Webber explained in his BBC column.