Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button

McLaren are optimistic they are on target for the first Q2 appearances of their new Honda era after Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were both impressed by the MP4-30’s form during practice.

Despite playing down their chances of making a big improvement in Shanghai, McLaren enjoyed a quietly impressive Friday with both of the team's cars inside the top 12 on the timesheet.

As they continue to play catch up from a winter plagued by unreliability, McLaren have yet to qualify higher than 17th so far this season and missed Q2 by six tenths of a second last time out in Malaysia. But while both Alonso and Button are expecting to fall back from where they finished P2, both men believe they can clear the first qualifying hurdle on Saturday.

Asked by Sky Sports News HQ if McLaren could even contemplate jumping straight into Q3, Alonso replied: “I doubt. We need to have the feet on the ground and we need to understand that tomorrow normally in qualifying the others put some extra power [on their engines].

“We saw in Australia, we saw in Malaysia, so I don’t think Q3 is possible. Definitely Q2 is the goal for tomorrow and finishing the race maybe even close to the points is the goal.”

Button agreed that “Q2 is more realistic” and added: “At the moment you’d say definitely, but who knows when tomorrow comes.”

The 2009 world champion described the MP4-30 as having been “a real pleasure to drive” during practice, although suggested that set-up changes he had made to try and improve front tyre wear had only served to compromise the rears.

“We seem reasonably good out there. It’s nice to drive, especially on the soft tyres. There’s a lot of grip out there,” Button said.

“The long runs are not as great as we would hope, the one-lap pace seems to be better than the long runs which is a turnaround from Malaysia. So we’ll have to see how it goes tomorrow in qualifying and the race. We’re able to extract the maximum out of the car whereas a lot of people haven’t, so that’s why we probably look better than we at the moment.”

Alonso, a two-time winner at Shanghai, was similarly effusive and hailed the team’s progress since they propped up the field just a month ago in Australia.

“A very positive Friday for us. We completed the programme and tested some aerodynamic parts in P1 and set-up changes in P2,” he explained.

“Even if we didn’t bring a huge amount of upgrades to the car, all of them are working as expected. The team is so determined to keep improving and it was a nice surprise to see the timed laps and running in the middle of the pack. In Australia one month ago we were 33 second compared to the penultimate car, it is amazing what the team are doing."