Button: Points might be a tough ask in Spain

Button, 10th in Russia to teammate Fernando Alonso's sixth as the duo scored their first points of the season, was well off the pace in FP1 and then sat out much of FP2 due to an engine issue.

"We had a pretty bad day," he conceded.

"FP1 was tough and FP2 we couldn't get the car out of the garage for a lot of it.

"But eventually we did a bit of running, the long run pace isn't too bad and on the soft tyre we've actually found balance - we've had big issues with the rear just floating all day, but we're getting there. Tomorrow should be much better.

"We have a good base now, we can work with it a bit tomorrow, we're just a little bit behind the game."

Despite some reserved optimism, Button admitted it wouldn't be easy for McLaren to add more points to its haul in Barcelona.

"It's gonna be a tough weekend," he said. "I don't think it's gonna be the easiest race to score points but we'll do our best."

McLaren form same as in Russia - Alonso

Alonso, who was a fair bit ahead of his teammate in both FP1 and FP2, was more optimistic about his chances for the grand prix.

"It looks like we are more or less like in Russia," he said. "It appears we are in the top 10.

"It's not easy, but it's close... we are eighth, ninth, 10th, but then for some reason in qualy the rest always find more power in their engine - or they have a special mapping - and we fall behind.

"Here it's a circuit where the engine matters a little less so let's hope those mappings they have don't give them too many tenths and we can be there."