Jenson Button's superb performance in free practice ahead of Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix has given
Honda hope of making it into the top ten on merit in qualifying for the second race of the 2008
Formula 1 campaign even though the new car is still at a very early developmental stage.
The Brackley-based squad began the Australian Grand Prix from tenth (Rubens Barrichello) and twelfth (Button) on the grid, but the Brazilian's position was somewhat artificial as he was only promoted into the top ten as a result of
Timo Glock's brace of penalties. This time around, following Button's fourth-placed showing in the afternoon session behind only
Lewis Hamilton and the two Ferraris having taken a full 1.2 seconds off his morning time when he had lapped ninth-quickest, Honda are hoping to make it up there all on their own.
The track here at Sepang has been completely resurfaced since last year, Button explained, so it was important to see how much of a difference that had made. We ran through the usual tyre evaluation and set-up work and we have completed a lot of running, which is good. All-in-all, [it was] a very valuable day of testing in preparation for the weekend.
We have made good progress over the day and I'm happy with the car and the balance, which is positive. It's always difficult to know where we stand on a Friday versus the rest of the field, but I'm hopeful that we can continue to improve the car through this evening and tomorrow.
Barrichello, whilst unable to match his team-mate's heroics in terms of lap times, also professed himself in confident frame of mind at the day's close, despite admitting that there was more work still to do before he would be completely happy. The 35-year-old who was denied his first points finish in some 18 races in Australia after exiting the pit-lane under a red light ultimately wound up twelfth on the timesheets.
