Jenson Button thinks his race-day struggles will be over at Hockenheim

The McLaren driver has not finished higher than eighth in the last six grands prix as he struggled with tyre degradation.

His team has introduced several new components for his car this weekend, and Button was quickest in Friday's opening practice.

Button is now hopeful things will be better for him on Sunday.

"The last couple of races have been difficult for both of us in terms of not being quick enough," said Button. "I don't fear the race. I'm excited about the race.

"Hopefully with the new parts and a few new ideas that we have for the car we should have a much better degradation [rate]. You have to be positive."

He added: "I wouldn't be quick on Friday if I wasn't confident in my ability and in the car. It hasn't worked out for me, but you have to keep pushing all weekend and hope to have a good race.

"Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you luck out of it and sometimes your car works, and we haven't had that lately, but hopefully we will this weekend."

Button was optimistic about the performance of the new parts introduced by his team, and said the day had been very productive despite the rain.

"The package that we have on the car today, we are happy that is working. We got a lot of useful information."

The Briton admitted, however, that McLaren is still facing a challenge in wet conditions, and says the team has to find improvements to ensure it does not struggle in qualifying if Saturday is, as expected, wet.

"We tried a lot things, and some of them are working, which is good, but there's still a lot more work to improve there. The first session was dry and we got a lot of useful data out of P1.

"P2 was difficult. We proved that we are still struggling to get the tyres working in those conditions. A lot of work needed in that area so we can be quick in the wet, because I think it could be wet tomorrow."