At the next race in Malaysia, the team expressed confidence that they could improve the car, claiming that the bumpy nature of the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit had exaggerated the car's flaws, and so were expecting the smoother surface of the Sepang circuit to be much more representative of the car's performance. Jenson Button qualified eighth and briefly led the race, until a mistake during his final pit stop cost him several positions. The team decided to retire the car instead of continue, and Button was ultimately classified seventeenth as he had completed 90% of the race distance. Sergio Pérez qualified tenth and finished ninth overall, setting the fastest lap time after making an unscheduled stop late in the race. The team recovered in China, with Button finishing fifth overall and the ten points he received elevating the team from seventh to fifth place in the World Constructors' Championship, drawing level with Force India. Both Button and Pérez scored points at the Bahrain Grand Prix, ahead of the car's first major updates in Spain. Despite the team playing down the expected gains from the upgrades, the package nevertheless proved to be disappointing, and McLaren elected to postpone the introduction of some parts amid concerns about their legality. Button and Pérez finished the race in eighth and ninth place respectively, with Button describing the team's performances as being "a bit embarrassing" and admitting that whatever gains the team had made had been marginalised by the development schedules of other teams, who had also used the race to introduce their first major updates for the season. Commentators noted that during the race, Button's fastest lap time was just five hundredths of a second faster than Max Chilton's best lap time set in the Marussia MR02, a car that qualified on the back row of the grid for the race.