McLaren hoping to make fans proud at Honda’s home race

McLaren head to engine supplier Honda's home race this weekend and they're hoping to put on a good show for the Japanese fans, following a strong result in Malaysia last weekend.

The team enjoyed a double points finish at Sepang, with Fernando Alonso storming through from last place to finish seventh – putting him a point ahead of Williams' Felipe Massa in the standings – whilst team-mate Jenson Button finished 9th.

Team boss Eric Boullier is hoping for a repeat of that result at Suzuka to make up for last year's showing in which the duo finished P11 and P16.

"Our double points finish in Sepang was great encouragement and reward for the relentless hard work happening behind the scenes in Woking and Sakura, and we’ll take this motivation to Suzuka, where we hope to achieve similar results," said Boullier.

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"The race itself is sure to be dramatic – it often is at this prestigious circuit – so we hope to maximise the potential our package has shown recently and put on a good show for the incredible fans."

Honda's Yusuke Hasegawa is also looking to reward the local fans with a result they can be "proud of".

"Suzuka is a very special place and an important race weekend, of course for Honda but also for me personally – I have great memories of racing there with Formula 1 in years gone by," he said. "I am thankful for all the very knowledgeable and enthusiastic F1 fans, who expect a lot from us, but are very understanding at the same time.

"Suzuka is a track highly rated by the drivers for its technical and complex nature. In order to succeed there, there must be a good balance between the power unit and chassis. We will do our utmost to set up the car to hopefully score more points and be within reach of the top three teams.

"I hope that we can have a race that we can be proud of, and that our fans can be proud of, too."