Button targets top ten in qualifying

Button qualified in 12th in Australia and 11th in Malaysia, and the Honda driver reckons he should have a chance of going one better in Bahrain.

The British driver set the 11th fastest time in this afternoon's practice.

"It was a good day of testing today and we achieved some valuable tyre comparison work which will set us up nicely for the rest of the weekend," said Button.

"We do still have some set-up work to complete and we need to improve the balance, but overall it was a good start.

"We are hoping to break into the top ten qualifiers this weekend. It will be a tough challenge, and we will have a better idea of how our competitors are performing after tomorrow morning, but I'm confident we can give it a good shot."

Teammate Rubens Barrichello admitted he was struggling with his car's brakes during the day, the Brazilian having to settle for 16th position.

"The main challenge for me today has been with the brakes, which I struggled with for much of the two sessions," he said. "So our focus was on setting up the brakes and the car to satisfy the high braking demands of this circuit.

"Unfortunately by the end of the day, I was still having difficultly and losing time with the new tyres due to a lack of confidence getting on the brakes, so we have some further work to do on this tomorrow."