British ace laps fourth-quickest in Sepang - then claims there is much more still to come.

Honda's improving 2008 fortunes continued in Malaysia as the team that had looked something of a joke in pre-season testing came away from Sepang having set a faster race lap than Felipe Massa's Ferrari.

Though Jenson Button may have finished down in tenth place with team-mate Rubens Barrichello 13th - the Brazilian losing time with a late-race drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit-lane - the Briton's quickest lap time was just four tenths of a second off the leading pace, three tenths slower than race-winner Kimi Raikkonen and two tenths faster than that of the Finn's team-mate Massa.

"It was good to finish the full race distance," the 28-year-old affirmed, "and we will get a lot of very useful information from the weekend. I was pretty satisfied with tenth place, as that is where the performance of the car is right now. With the majority of cars ahead of us also finishing, it was a good reflection of our overall position.

"We're going in the right direction and learning more about the car all the time, so we need to keep up the hard work and continue to develop ahead of the next race."

"Unfortunately my weekend was compromised when we lost the free practice running on the Saturday morning," contrasted Barrichello, "as I lacked balance in the car for the race. I had a lot of understeer and was battling with that throughout the race. The drive-through penalty after my second stop was unfortunate, even though I only lost one place, as the markings in the pit-lane to indicate where the speed limit ends were not clear enough.

"We have learnt a great deal from the past two weeks and I have been very encouraged by our reliability. We still have a lot of work to do on the performance, but that will come through our development programme over the coming weeks in preparation for Europe.

"We are quite competitive within the very tight midfield group, and it is encouraging to see that both cars made it through a very tough race [in Malaysia]. We will learn from our experiences, both positive and negative, and I am confident we will continue to improve over the next few races."

Team principal Ross Brawn was also encouraged by the Brackley-based outfit's form in the opening two grands prix of the 2008 campaign, after Honda's new RA108 challenger had featured consistently at the bottom of the timesheets in pre-season testing - a far cry from Button's fourth-quickest race lap in Sepang.

"The weekend was more straightforward for the whole field compared with Melbourne," the former Ferrari technical director confirmed, "and we saw fewer drivers making mistakes. Sepang is also a more representative circuit in terms of car performance, as Melbourne can produce unusual results.

"Therefore to see Jenson finish the race in tenth place with Rubens just behind - in spite of his problems in the third free practice session - is very encouraging and a real indication of the car's pace. There is still a great deal of work to do, but we are really starting to make improvements one step at a time.

"Our next development step will be introduced for Barcelona, where we will see another aero update and we also plan to have some new suspension components. Of course every team will have updates, but we feel the rate of our own progress is significant and we are hopeful that it will see us take a step up the grid for the start of the European season."