Hamilton "very pleased" with the MP4-25

The 2008 World Champion has said he is very pleased with his new car, according to an interview on his website. Mclaren had great difficulties last year with an under developed car, but this years contender has been much more competitive with Jenson Button winning in Australia and both drivers finishing in the points at all three races.

"I'm very pleased, I think I'm driving as well as I ever have - I love driving this year's car: I said to my engineers in Malaysia that I'd never had a car that felt as solid and as planted as the MP4-25, it feels like a car that you can not only find a perfect balance with, but you can also really push it, and it reacts well to the changes on full-tanks or when it's empty." said Lewis Hamilton.

"And that's meant I've really been able to push to the limit, which is how I love to drive.

"I don't think I've ever enjoyed driving a Formula 1 car more than I have with this year's car. Of course, it hasn't been perfect - but then nothing is - but I feel extremely confident for the races ahead."

"We saw in Sepang that the car was extremely quick, even if we couldn't do enough in qualifying to get ourselves up the front," Hamilton said. "In fact, I think our car's always been quick this season, we just didn't get the job done properly in qualifying in Bahrain, but we've actually been quick in all the races.

"But yeah, we made a step forward in Malaysia - we actually brought forward the new parts we'd planned for China. We've got a few more new parts for China, nothing major, but it should hopefully help us close the gap."