Button Feeling more Confident with Car

Although the Briton and teammate Takuma Sato were 9th and 13th fastest in the second session, he is upbeat about the handling of the car.

"We've completed all our planned running for today and achieved a lot of laps, so we've made a good start in that respect," said Button, who has suffered from a viral infection in the days leading up to the event.

"We suffered from low grip this morning but the grip level improved in the afternoon.  Overall the car feels better to drive than in the last two races. We have a lot of data from both cars to look at so, as usual, it's a busy night ahead with the engineers to make sure we keep moving in the right direction."

Sato added: "It was a good start to the practice session and this has given us a good initial direction. The balance at the beginning of the day was good and we acquired all the important information that we need to make our tyre decision for tomorrow. 

"I'm looking forward to continuing this good progress throughout the rest of the weekend."