F1: Button showing Eastern promise

Jenson Button was full of eastern promise today after producing the best qualifying performance of his Renault career at the Malaysian Grand Prix in Kuala Lumpur.

The 22-year-old posted the eighth fastest time for the former Benetton team this morning and has his sights firmly set on a points finish in tomorrow’s race.

‘‘That’s not too bad considering I was in the spare car,’’ said Button, who had to switch after a problem in his race machine but still outqualified team-mate Jarno Trulli who was 12th.

‘‘I think we could have been seventh but it is looking good for me and the team at the moment. I definitely want to get some points in the bag tomorrow.’’

Button, one of the victims of the eight-car first-corner shunt in Australia two weeks ago, added: ‘‘I just want to avoid trouble at the first corner tomorrow.

‘‘But I will still be giving in 100%. Hopefully I can pick up a couple of places at the start.

‘‘If you think Jarno was seventh in Australia it shows the potential we have. Give us a few more races and maybe we can start challenging the McLarens.’’

Button’s delight in is stark contrast to last year when he was 17th in qualifying in Malaysia and showing the early signs of a season of struggle with an uncompetitive and difficult car.

The Frome-born driver is showing a new lease of life in the second of his two-year loan deal and is displaying the form and potential which earned him his grand prix breakthrough with Williams in 2000.

‘‘Things are a lot better this year,’’ added Button, whose previous best qualifying for Renault was ninth in Japan in the final race of last season.

‘‘Things were improving towards the end of last season but we’ve just built on that.’’

Button finished just two places behind the McLaren of David Coulthard and the Scot admits he faces a tough task overcoming Michael Schumacher who maintained his unblemished pole record on the Sepang track.

‘‘I’m not at all happy with today’s performance and it has been difficult from the start of the weekend,’’ said Coulthard. ‘‘I think I paid the price for losing a lot of laps yesterday.

‘‘It is going to be difficult trying to beat the Ferrari’s from sixth but that has got to be the aim. It is going to be a long and tough race but anything can happen.’’

The 30-year-old saw his first practice session end on the opening lap with an engine failure while he also finished in the gravel during practice this morning.

Coulthard’s fellow Scot Allan McNish was disappointed with his 19th place in the second qualifying session of his career, but is now hoping to avoid a repeat of Melbourne when he was caught up in the first-corner mayhem.

‘‘It was not a good session,’’ said the 32-year-old Toyota driver. ‘‘We had a problem on the first lap which meant I had to come back to the garage for the T-car, but I never really had a good feeling or set-up.

‘‘Tomorrow we need to have a good clean start and keep out of trouble on the first corner and see what happens from there.’’