Lewis Hamilton upbeat about McLaren form after topping times on Friday

The British driver posted the fastest time of the day in the afternoon practice session, leading team-mate Jenson Button as McLaren dominated the day.

Hamilton believes McLaren will be strong this weekend judging by today's form.

"I think it was a great day for us," said Hamilton. "Our long run pace doesn't seem too bad. It's definitely a lot better compared to the last race. I kept it out of the wall, kept it out of trouble and I'm quite happy with it."

The Briton admitted he was also very pleased with the performance of Pirelli's tyres.

"The tyres are behaving really well and they are lasting really well as well," he said. "Today my long run felt pretty good and so that's the real positive today. And also the lower fuel run felt really, really good and tyre worked really well. A positive day. I'm quite happy with it.

"We seem to be quite competitive, but we don't know the fuel the others are running. So we are focusing on our job. The car is feeling a lot better for me this weekend, so I really hope that I'm able to keep that."

Team-mate Button was quickest in the opening session but said there was still a lot of work to do as he was not completely happy with his car's balance.

"The day was alright," Button said. "I'm still not entirely happy with the balance. I haven't been all day. We tried a few things and we are going in the right direction, but we have to get to the bottom of it.

"But the pace of the car looks good. Lewis is very fast so it shows that the car is quick. And the long run that I did was alright, but there's a lot of room for improvement."