Jenson Button has warned against reading too much into his headline time during Friday practice for the Australian Grand Prix, but admitted he was pleased with the McLaren's reliability.
Button topped the timesheets in the second free practice session, leading team-mate Lewis Hamilton as they both got their hands on the improved MP4-26. The result will be something of a relief, after McLaren signed off from pre-season testing roughly one second off the pace and with reliability problems.
"Today showed that, first of all, we've got reliability - which is great," said Button. "That's something we've not had all winter, so to have a car that runs for as many laps as we want it to is very satisfying. It also means we can get stuck into our set-up work and improve the car.
"I don't think there's much to be gained from looking at today's times though, so I'm not going to get too carried away. Still, it's been a positive day because we've been able to do so much running and get a good feeling for the car on different fuel-loads.
He said the car's update package for this race, which includes a new exhaust and floor, had improved its handling significantly.
"The new exhaust has definitely brought performance to the car - it feels much better, makes the handling more 'complete'. When you have downforce at the rear, you can also add it at the front, and then you put temperature in the tyres - there's so much that comes with downforce.
"I'm so happy with how hard the guys have worked and what they've brought to this race - they've worked really hard and they've delivered something good here. We don't yet know how good, but we're encouraged by the step we've made today."
Team principal Martin Whitmarsh backed up Button's appraisal of the car.
"Today was a good, solid day. Both our drivers performed very well, and we got a lot of work done," he said. "The Pirelli tyres exceeded expectations in terms of reliability, and we were thereby able to complete some good long runs and collate plenty of useful data and info.
"We ran a brand-new floor and a brand-new exhaust today, and it's always nice to bring new parts to a circuit and see them deliver what you'd expected. Today we saw that: a decent correlation from simulator to racetrack.
"But you don't get any points on Fridays - so, although it's always pleasing to see your cars finish first and second in any session, we won't be counting our chickens before they're hatched. All I'll therefore say now is that today was an encouraging day: we're going in the right direction, and we're hoping to continue in that direction in our efforts to strive to find further improvements overnight."
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