Jenson Button declared himself “very happy” after qualifying 11th for the Malaysian Grand Prix and confirming Honda’s recent progress.
The Japanese squad had a torrid time in winter testing and was widely expected to languish near the back of the grid at the early races.
But a new aerodynamic package the team introduced following an 11th-hour pre-season test at Jerez has proved highly effective, and Button has been quick all weekend at Sepang.
He missed the cut for the pole position shootout by less than 0.1s and was only one second behind pace-setter Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari in Q2.
“It was a good session actually, I’m very happy with the way it went,” he told ITV Sport’s F1 pit lane reporter Louise Goodman.
“I’m really happy with the lap I did and P11 through sheer speed is not too bad.
“I’m quite pleased with that.”
Button added that selecting the right tyre compound had been tricky as the track rubbered in during Q2.
“It was very difficult to choose between the [harder] prime and [softer] option tyres,” he said.
“I think I was the only guy running on prime tyres at the start of Q2.
“I just couldn’t get the options to work, but everybody else was on the options and when they’re putting that much option rubber down you’ve got to give it a go.
“We did that for the last run, and I went two and a half tenths quicker than my prime run, which is what was in the car.”