LONDON - MCLAREN showed signs of improvement on Wednesday in their battle to get their new car up to speed before the first race of the Formula One season in Australia next week.

Finland's Heikki Kovalainen, team mate to Britain's world champion Lewis Hamilton, lapped the Jerez circuit in southern Spain in a best time in the afternoon of one minute 18.202 seconds.

Japan's Kazuki Nakajima, the only other driver in action on the penultimate day of the final pre-season test, lapped in 1:20.014 for Williams.

Kovalainen's time compared to Hamilton's best of 1:19.121 on Tuesday and Jenson Button's fastest lap of 1:17.844 in the new Brawn GP car that same day.

McLaren said in a statement that the day's running, to evaluate the effectiveness of new aerodynamic modifications, had been 'extremely productive'.

The Mercedes-powered team had said last week that their car was not yet fast enough to challenge for wins and warned that it would take time to improve it. -- REUTERS