Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button disagree on McLaren's chances of scoring points at the Spanish Grand Prix after qualifying 13th and 14th.

Both drivers showed renewed pace during practice at a weekend which has seen McLaren bring new updates and an upgraded Honda power unit. However, they were unable to make it out of Q2 on Saturday afternoon, but that did not stop Alonso predicting a top ten finish at his home grand prix.

"I think so," Alonso said when asked about top ten chances. "We are starting 13th and 14th. On the clean side if we have a good start, a good strategy on the long run our pace is normally good, our management of the tyres is quite good. So I think tomorrow we have the first chance of points but for that we need to have a perfect race and it's what we need to try.

"I think we can take points tomorrow but it just doesn't change too much to be honest. To finish ninth, 10th, 11th, to score one point or two points is not what we want. We want much bigger than that, but it's also true that for the team motivation to keep achieving some results that you can touch because at the moment there are only hopes and only words but if we can start scoring points physically in the race that can be a help and it is what we want to do tomorrow."

However, Button is less optimistic.

"Yeah, I want what Fernando had for breakfast this morning, maybe I'd be more positive!" he said when told about his team-mate's prediction. "I think you look at the times on Friday, the top ten were very quick on their long runs."

But the 2009 world champion admits he sees definite signs of progress from the opening two days at the Barcelona circuit.

"I do think we have some gains on the PU from yesterday that we'll have on the car tomorrow and should be a positive. I don't know where we're going to end up but I'm happy with the progress we've made this weekend. It's great to see in qualifying we can be 13th and 14th. The last race Fernando was in 14th but a few of the cars had problems. Now this is just straightforward our pace has stepped forward, which is great. Hopefully we can put that to good use tomorrow and make the best use of what we have and other people won't - then there's always a good chance to score points, yes."

Button admits he has concerns about the first corner after struggling with a brake issue on Saturday.

"It's the front brake. One of the brakes is not coming up to temperature. We don't know why but hopefully it's something we can change. We have all the data to say that it's not doing what it should do, so hopefully we can change it. At some point in the race it will be fine but Turn 1 is going to be interesting because it's very aggressive how it pulls across."