• Turkish Grand Prix

McLaren expecting Red Bull turn of pace

Jenson Button was fastest in practice but expects a tougher fight in qualifying © Getty Images

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• Race:
• Turkish Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Jenson Button
• |
• Lewis Hamilton

• Teams:
• McLaren
• |
• Red Bull

Friday pacesetters Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton are expecting Red Bull to up its game in time for tomorrow's qualifying session for the Turkish Grand Prix.

Hamilton was quickest in the morning session and Button fastest overall in the afternoon, but Red Bull continued to improve throughout the day and has tended to run a heavier fuel load to mask its pace on Friday's this season. Button said there was still room for improvement through the high-speed turn eight but expects Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber will find even more significant gains.

"This morning was reasonably good, and this afternoon was better," he said. "I was struggling a little through turn eight, it's an area we'll be working on overnight because it's pretty tricky through there at the moment. It's a tough corner, especially if the car's moving around - so we've got to hope we can solve some of those issues before tomorrow.

"The car feels reasonably good around here - there are still some areas where we're not so strong, and the Red Bulls will once again be the cars to beat in qualifying tomorrow, we can't get away from that. I just hope we're closer than we've been in the last two races. I think the Ferrari will be quick here too. It should be the top four teams that we normally see, and possibly Renault as well, so I don't think qualifying tomorrow will be boring. There should be some good battles."

Hamilton also thinks the Red Bulls will improve but was confident McLaren could put up a fight.

"I have no doubts that tomorrow in qualifying the Red Bulls will pull out something extra, which they always seem able to do," he said. "We haven't made too many changes to the car for this race, but we've got a chance this weekend, and I think we'll be able to compete with them," he said. "Turn eight is quite bumpy as always, and you could see today that some of the others were having a few difficulties through there, but it wasn't a problem for us,"

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.