Qualifying will be key - Button

Date published : 01 Apr 2010 - 15:25:14

Jenson Button is confident he can carry forward the momentum from his debut win for McLaren in Australia in Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix.However, the world champion is wary his chances of back-to-back victories rely on a strong qualifying performance. "The last race has given me a real boost and I'm confident coming here," said Button. "But I don't know if we can win if we are off the pace in qualifying - that's an area that we are weak in." Button and his McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton were surprised to find themselves more than a second adrift of Sebastian Vettel's pole lap for Red Bull in the opening race of the season in Bahrain. My top three is Vettel, Button, Massa in dry, Vettel, Hamilton, Schumacher in wet \/\/uC45h The McLarens improved at Albert Park's low downforce street circuit in Melbourne but Button still found himself 0.61 seconds off Vettel's second stunning position. Button and Hamilton had stressed their need to improve their raw pace over one lap in Melbourne and the English duo again singled it out as an area they desperately need to improve at the third race of the season in Sepang. "Our qualifying pace wasn't quick enough in Australia," Button said. "It's an area we need to work on. "If we are 0.60 seconds per lap off in qualifying then we could find ourselves three or four places back on the grid and you've got no chance of winning then. "We have to make sure our qualifying is good here but I think we can get the tyres working a lot better here because the circuit temperature is higher." Hamilton is also looking for a major improvement in qualifying after he failed to make the top-10 shootout in Melbourne and started 11th on the grid. Vettel confident of catching Alonso "Our qualifying pace is clearly not quick as (Red Bull and Ferrari's)," Hamilton added. "They definitely have more downforce and more grip but we have good straight speed and our race pace is stronger." Red Bull have the fastest car on the grid but have so far failed to convert that raw speed into podiums. Vettel was leading in both races before a spark plug failure in Bahrain saw him slide back to fourth, while the team say a broken connection between the front wheel and axle was behind the German's retirement in Melbourne. "The car is built on the limit and so these things happen," said Vettel, who finished runner-up to Button in the 2009 championship. "It's not like there's one weak department causing all the problems as both failures happen very rarely. "It's not good if you want to fight for the championship but we are only two races into the season and so it's not a big deal." Webber defends his 'hard and fair' racing Both of Red Bull's reliability gremlins have only affected Vettel's car but his team-mate Mark Webber believes it is vital to the team's chances of challenging over the course of the season that any problems are ironed out as soon as possible. "Making the car reliable is the most important thing," said Webber, who has collected six points this season. "Seb has had two different problems in the first two races; those things can happen and we hope they're all behind us, but we have to continue to work on the things that have let us down in the past. "We are as hard on ourselves as everyone else thinks they can be on us - and no-one is trying more than us."