McLaren pairing Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso are eyeing a Q2 slot following an impressive practice session on Friday which saw them come within two seconds of Mercedes.
Button managed to finish 10th in FP2 whilst Alonso was a few places back in 12th. The pair both believe Q3 would be a stretch but reckon Q2 is a realistic possibility on Saturday.
“There’s always a possibility [of getting into Q3], but I think Q2 is more realistic,” said the Briton on Friday. “To be fair, Q2 or Q3 doesn’t really excite me either way; you want to be at the front.
“It’s more about what we achieve in terms of steps forward with the car and also the feeling of the car.
“The feeling’s good, but there’s still room for improvement.”
His team-mate agrees and says unexpected progress has been made between Malaysia and China.
“We don’t see ourselves in Q3,” confirmed the Spaniard. “We were analysing the times and we know everybody uses a bit more power in qualifying and we won’t be doing that, so we’ll go back a bit, but Q2 is a real goal for this race.
“We are getting close to the midfield cars,” he added. “We didn’t expect to take a big step forward here but it looks like we are still on the right path, so I’m doubly happy,” he added.
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