Hulkenberg said he was “not really surprised” by McLaren’s Friday pace in Montreal, when Jenson Button equalled the sixth-fastest time of Valtteri Bottas in his Williams.

“I have them in my calculations for the rest of the season to be honest,” said Hulkenberg.

“I knew that every weekend it seems like they pretty much bring something [new].

“It looks like that’s working well for them at the moment.”

Perez admits surprise

Hulkenberg’s teammate Sergio Perez appeared more shocked by the pace of Button, and believes the closeness of the packed midfield will make getting into Q3 a difficult task on Saturday.

“I'm surprised they are quick on this type of track, but they were also quick in Bahrain [Button was third quickest in FP2 in Bahrain], so we'll see where they are tomorrow,” said Perez.

“It's a lot tighter than I thought [in Canada]. I thought we were going to be more comfortably inside the top 10 so we really need a perfect qualifying tomorrow to make it into Q3.

“I'm a bit concerned because the balance of the car is more or less alright. Generally on Friday you feel that there is a lot to improve on the car, but today I think there's just a couple of tweaks we can do to improve it but not a lot.”