• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - FP2

Button feels improvement from India

ESPN Staff
November 2, 2012 « KERS problem curtails Webber's practice | Vettel sees McLaren as main rival in Abu Dhabi »
Jenson Button is confident his car is more competitive than it was last weekend © Press Association
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Jenson Button believes his McLaren is "in a better place than it was in India" after practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Having failed to do a long run during practice in India, Button struggled slightly in the early part of the race while battling against Fernando Alonso and team-mate Lewis Hamilton and finished fifth. However, two encouraging practice session at Yas Marina - in which Button was second and third quickest - led him to confirm a step forward from last weekend.

"It went pretty well, the car is in a better place than it was in India, which is good," Button said. "On low fuel it seems to take a lot of laps to get the lap time out of it; I only did three laps on the option so I probably didn't find the best with tyre but I wanted to get on the long run - high fuel run - because that's something I missed out on in India and it hurt me at the start of the race.

"The long run today was good, I'm very happy with that. There's still areas to work as there always is on a Friday - I don't think you want a perfect car on a Friday - but useful information this afternoon and it's the most important session out of all three practice sessions."

However, Button dismissed the morning session when he was second fastest, saying it did not relate to the rest of the race weekend.

"The morning session is a tricky one because it's so hot; you never qualify and you never race in that condition so this evening's session is the most important session this weekend in terms of practice to get the balance right to really focus the car on low fuel and high fuel."

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