Q & A with Jenson Button

Ominously for the team's rivals, Button said that there was much more to come when he spoke to the press after the session.

Q. Brawn is a small team with big potential - what is the key to your success?

Jenson Button: That's a difficult one. We've had a lot of time to work on this car and we have a group of very talented people. I'd probably put it down to the talented people more than the time we've had to work on this car because with last year's car we were sort of gathering the troops and getting a good line-up of people and a leader. The leadership of Ross has been key in producing this car and positioning people correctly so we can work as one and build a car that we've got today.

Q. Is it strange to be considered favourite?

JB: Well I still think of us as the underdogs really. We've been quick in testing, but we still haven't done as many miles as other people. So we've had a few issues, for example we had a problem this morning where we weren't able to get out for the last 20 minutes of the session. So there's still a few things we need to sort out. The pace is reasonably good and that's on the long runs on the tyres which is good. But there are still a lot of areas we need to improve - we're nowhere near sorted yet.

Q. What's your opinion of the diffuser issue?

JB: It's no more.

Q. Lots of tension and sleepless nights building up to this one - but after today's performance will you sleep well tonight?

JB: But it's still frustrating - it's only three hours but you don't actually spend that much time on the circuit. So I still don't feel that we've got the best out of the car yet, there's still a lot of work to do. But the important thing is if you look at our longer run pace, we're reasonably strong. But it's getting these tyres to work with the car in the temperatures that we saw this afternoon. There's still a lot of work to do, but in some ways it's good, but we're not anyway near happy with the balance of the car at the moment.

Q. Can you say you're a contender for Sunday?

JB: Yeah but I don't know what fuel levels people were running when they were doing their quick times. We're reasonable quick on the new tyres but getting them to work on the first lap is what we are lacking at the moment. But my longer run pace (on the prime) was the most competitive. It's good to be in that position. There are a lot of areas to improve - as you'd expect after only having three days of testing.

Q. Ferrari were a lot slower than expected?

JB: I don't know this morning they weren't. The long run of Massa on the prime wasn't too bad. He was probably one of the quickest on his long run pace. I don't think they're slow and we've seen in the past the Ferraris and McLarens don't give their maximum. We'll see tomorrow morning.

Q. Can we expect Brawn, Williams and Toyota to be the pace setters?

JB: You have to say that Ferrari are looking quick as well. I didn't really look at the times really. I saw one long run time from Toyota and one from Felipe. I don't know who's competitive. The Williams has put in some good lap times - I don't know where that's come from, but we're just getting on with our job at the moment. Overnight we've got to work out why we can't get the tyres to work. I'm sure it's something we'll be able to solve.

Q. How different is the Brawn to last year's Honda in the low and high-speed corners?

JB: It's going to be better in low because you've got more rubber on the circuit and the traction is good. The initial turn-in is better because obviously you've got more rubber on the front compared to the grooves. The car feels nicer to driver, but when you compare it with last year's car it's a big difference...