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Fernando Alonso believes McLaren has made 'big' progress with its Formula 1 car after he returned to the cockpit in Malaysia on Friday.

The Spaniard had not driven since his pre-season testing crash at Barcelona, having been forced to miss the season opener in Australia.

But following McLaren being on the back row in Melbourne, the progress shown at Sepang has lifted his confidence that steps are being made.

"It's much better," said Alonso of the McLaren-Honda package. "To be honest, the experience I had in winter was a lot of problems in the car.

"After four or five laps we would have to stop and change something.

"Today we ran 45 laps with zero problems and everything went as we predicted.

"We were 4.6 seconds behind the pole position in Australia, here we could be three to 3.5 - so one or 1.5 seconds gain in two weeks. It is a big step forward."

When asked if McLaren could set its sights on getting out of Q1, he said: "I don't know. For us there is so much to learn.

"There is so much progress to make in the power units, and the braking system, so every lap is important for us.

"There are not clear targets for us this weekend. The progress in 15 days that the team has made is quite interesting."

Despite Alonso's optimism, team-mate Jenson Button was more cautious about the situation because the tricky conditions in Malaysia meant it was difficult to judge progress.

"Today is very tricky for everyone in terms of the way cars feel out there," he said.

"I think even the quicker cars are struggling for a consistent balance.

"The wind makes it very difficult, so it's been tough but we seem a little bit more competitive than the last race compared to other cars.

"I might've been wrong yesterday when I said we won't race other cars. That is a possibility and that would be a massive step forward if that is the case."

NOT YET FULLY FIT

Alonso admitted that he is not back to perfect shape after his month out of the car, but he is delighted to be driving again.

"It felt great today in the car, finally after gym, simulator, whatever you do is never the same as when you drive the car.

"The conditions here are extreme, very hot, physically it is very demanding.

"I am not 100% physically fit after two weeks so far and two weeks of not in the car, but enough to enjoy."