McLaren drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton are confident they have found a good set-up during Friday practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Button finished the second session 0.005 seconds off pacesetter Mark Webber as the two McLarens appeared to match rivals Red Bull for pace. Button admitted the team made a wrong turn with the car's set-up in the morning session, when he complained of a lack of rear grip, but is now confident he will have a competitive car for qualifying.
"This afternoon's session was much better than this morning's," he said. "We found things a little difficult during P1; after Melbourne, we chose to head in a certain direction in order to resolve the issues we had in the first race, but the track is very different here. So we went back on a few of those changes, and everything is performing better now.
"But, actually, everyone appears to have been struggling with rear grip today. The tyres feel very different from those we had in Melbourne. It's very tricky, but that's what we saw in winter testing, so we have good experience with that.
"We don't know what fuel loads the other teams were running, of course. What's important, though, is that we changed a lot of things on the car and they were all positive steps. We feel like we've found a good direction - and hopefully there'll be more to come."
Lewis Hamilton finished third in the afternoon session ahead of Australian Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel and reckons there could be a close and exciting race on Sunday.
"Today has been interesting. We seem reasonably close to the top of the time-sheets - and I think we've made some positive steps with the set-up of the car. We've still got time to find, but it's been a constructive day.
"The track conditions are massively different compared with the cold conditions we experienced in Australia, so the tyres don't last as long. Maybe Sunday will see a three-stop race. I think the bunch of teams at the front is tightening, so it could be a good race. I hope we're also closer to the front than we were in the last race, but we'll have to wait and see."
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