Button remains realistic despite upturn in Honda's fortunes

After finishing ninth in the first run, Button improved his best time by more than a second to end the 90-minute afternoon period in fourth place, trailing only Lewis Hamilton's McLaren and the two Ferraris.

But the Brit was quick to play down any suggestions of a shock result for Honda in Sepang on Sunday.

"We won't be fourth on the grid," he said.

"In qualifying, we're not going to be that quick. I don't know 100% but I can't imagine we'd be that quick. (Sebastian) Vettel was fifth quickest today and he was in a Toro Rosso.

"I'm not interested in the time at all. I think we need to look at what we did today. I'm happy with the improvements we made today for the car. It's a very interesting circuit and it's very difficult to be consistent around here.

"We've got to wait and see and forget about what the times say and get our heads down and see if we can improve the car further because there's still some areas that we need to improve.

"The long-run pace needs a bit of work, but I'm a lot happier with the car's long-run pace than in Melbourne compared to our competitors."

Button declined to even indicate where he thinks Honda will end up in comparison to the rest of the field on Saturday but insisted he was nevertheless satisfied with the improvement the team has shown so far this season after last term's depressing campaign.

"I haven't got a prediction for qualifying," he added.

"The Ferraris and the McLarens will be at the front and I don't know about the rest.

"But I think we've made some good steps forward with the set-up of the car and as I said in Melbourne, it's responsive and it's something I haven't experienced for a long time.

"You can work with it and you can see improvements throughout the day through set-up work.

"It was a good day but I don't think it's a day where we can say we are fourth quickest.

"Hopefully we can make some more improvements and we'll see where we are in qualifying."

With the weather forecast uncertain for the weekend, there is a possibility Sepang may see the first wet race without the use of traction control.

Having previously voiced fears a typical Malaysian deluge will wreak havoc with Sunday's 56-lap contest, Button did concede he would not be overly unhappy if it did rain.

"A wet track would be nice for Sunday," he said.

"I think it could be fun but it would be nice to keep qualifying in the dry."