BAR Duo Optimistic despite Times

Button's fourth fastest time from first practice was encouraging but the team's decision to focus on heavy-fuel race runs in second practice meant his 13th best time, and Sato's 18th quickest, made it hard to judge just how quick they will be over the rest of the weekend.

However, judging by the feedback they got from their cars, both drivers were pretty pleased with how the opening day had panned out.

"We've made a good start to the weekend today, completing all our usual Friday testing and tyre comparison runs," said Button.

"The car seems to be working reasonably well and we got some valuable data on the track conditions, which may prove useful on Sunday as the forecast is for similarly cool and overcast weather to what we've seen here today."

Sato added: "Both sessions went well today and we have done a reasonable amount of running. We suffered a little bit with lack of grip as the temperatures were quite cold.

"The balance of the car was good and we just have to work on gaining more speed before tomorrow, but overall the weekend has started well."