High speed corners hurt McLaren – Button

Jenson Button says that Sepang's high speed corners, as well as the extreme heat, is hampering McLaren's progress at this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.

Button was eighth in the second free practice session and believes that McLaren's long run pace isn't giving him too much hope.

"We’re finding it tough out there today – especially in the heat," said Button, who won in Malaysia five years ago.

"We’re not as strong as we’d like to be in high-speed corners – and, when you have downforce issues, they’re further amplified by the hot weather. So our long runs were tricky – in terms of both tyre degradation and outright pace.

"We’re now going through the data, but the upgrades we brought here seem to be giving us something – so that’s encouraging – but there’s a lot of work still to be done.

"I’m sure people are getting excited about individual lap-times, but they don’t count for too much around here because you can usually overtake. It’s the long runs that you need to analyse, and that’s where we’re finding it a bit more difficult."