Fernando Alonso has said that he is happy with the progress that McLaren have made since the season-opening race in Australia.

The Spaniard and teammate Jenson Button will start the Malaysian Grand Prix from the penultimate row of the grid in Sepang.

However, Alonso believes that the Woking-based outfit have improved from a fortnight ago in Melbourne.

He told reporters: "Our form today wasn't unexpected but I think our performance so far this weekend has maybe been better than I'd have anticipated before arriving here in Malaysia.

"In fact, I'd say the progress we've made since Australia has been fantastic, we're much closer to the cars in front now but we're still under-performing and we still need to improve.

"However, the steps we're taking with the car show a lot of progress, so I'm optimistic that I won't be qualifying in Q1 for that much longer."

Alonso takes part in his first race for McLaren Honda, after being ruled out of the opening round following a pre-season crash in Barcelona.