McLaren Mercedes Chinese Grand Prix free practice review - Shanghai International Circuit, Friday April 12JENSON BUTTON - MP4-28A-03FP1         1m38.069s (+1.352s)             24 laps                    6thFP2         1m36.432s (+1.092s)             29 laps                    6th

We cant yet conclusively tell if the upgrades we brought to this race have improved the car. Theyre perhaps not as big a step forward as wed expectedthe issues with the car are still therebut the car does feel a little bit better.Weve worked very hard over the last few weeks to bring the new parts herewhich is great. Todays been all about putting mileage on those parts; now we need to sit down and look at the data this eveningtheres a lot to look through.I feel well be using the Prime tyre quite a lot in the race. The Option tyre transforms the car completely; over one lap, theres a lot more grip, but then you start to lose time over each successive lap.My puncture happened after Id already decided to pit. I got to the braking zone at Turn 14, locked up the front left and the tyre just puncturedthere was a hole through it. Its a good job that corner is just before the pits.I dont think well be fighting at the front this weekend, but well definitely be fighting someone.SERGIO PEREZ - MP4-28A-02FP1         1m39.360s                              20 laps                    16th

FP2         1m36.940s                              16 laps                    11thToday was a difficult day for me, but an important one for the team. I had two offsin the morning, I was running on cold, worn tyres, locked the wheels and just touched the barrier. went into the barrier. In FP2, we dont really understand what happened because I wasnt really pushing at the time.Still, Im sure we will improve tomorrow. Ill effectively be starting from zero because Ill adopt a completely new set-up. That wont make things easier, but I think weve gathered some useful data today and that will ensure we make good progress for the future.The target for tomorrow is to get into Q3. For Sunday, the tyres will play a big role; itll be essential to manage the degradation and plot the perfect strategy, but I know the team is very good in these areas, so Im optimistic.I think we can have a good result on Sunday.MARTIN WHITMARSHTeam principal, Vodafone McLaren MercedesToday was a very busy day for the whole teamwe spent both practice session running lots of tests, evaluating a number of new parts and gathering useful data.Its too early to say yet whether any of that work is conclusivethere is still an awful lot of data to be analysed by the engineers this eveningbut, as always, Im confident that we will take a step forward in performance tomorrow.Its clearly been an incident-filled day for Checo, but its all useful learning. Im sure hell quickly put it behind him and focus on having a stronger day tomorrow.