HRT will contest their first grand prix of the season in Malaysia after both Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan qualified.
HRT, who did not take part in pre-season testing, missed out on the previous race in Australia when both drivers failed to get within the 107 percent rule.
However, this time out in Malaysia they were both safe; Karthikeyan by 0.319s and de la Rosa by a full second.
"It was a good day," said the Spanish driver. "From the first lap in the morning I felt that the car had improved notably and we improved our times significantly.
"We've lowered our time by more than a second from yesterday to today and every time we modify something new we're going quicker. We could have improved our times even more during the qualifying session.
"I was only able to do one lap but it was enough. The important thing was to qualify and we did.
"The team has proved that in a short amount of days it managed to have the DRS ready and improve the power steering and other aspects of the car. We've taken a huge stride and I'm very satisfied because of that.
"Now we have to see how tomorrow goes in long distance because it will be the first time we string so many laps together, which won't be easy in this weather."
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