Honda confident of more speed

Although Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello were given more running than is usual on a Friday to gauge their relative performance, Davidson put in a mammoth programme of 59 laps to give the team plenty of data to pour over on Friday night.

And with Button and Barrichello setting the second and third fastest times in first practice, with Davidson fifth overall in the second session, the team are upbeat about where they stand.

Davidson said: "We've had an uninterrupted day today and covered a lot of laps. The car was reliable and we've managed to find a good balance for short runs in the morning and long runs this afternoon. We have gathered a lot of data to look at from the long runs regarding the tyre decision and generally we are happy with our day's work."

Button, who joined Barrichello in focusing on race set-up in the afternoon to set the seventh best time, said: "We've had a pretty straightforward Friday in terms of what we've been working on - set-up and tyre choices. As usual Anthony has been doing much of the running to enable Rubens and I to preserve our cars for the race.

"This is always a very strange circuit to get a good balance on because of the camber changes but the car is working reasonably well. There are a few balance issues that we need to solve and it's just very low grip out there, that's the biggest issue. I guess we will see how we can improve on that for tomorrow."

Barrichello, who was 15th fastest in the afternoon, added: "The day was trouble free in the sense that the car worked okay. The car feels very limited with both front and rear grip to be honest.  We're not worried about the performance on new tyres, we just have to keep working for the race, which is our main target."