Button: It will be hard

"Looking at Imola, the gap between us and Ferrari was eight tenths of a second a lap," Button admitted. "We can't catch that up here even if we do expect to be closer. I know it's a different circuit but if Ferrari does a perfect race, as they have pretty much everywhere, it's going to be hard to beat them here too.

"Hopefully I'm going to win a race, but it's a question of when. We are looking strong here, we've done a lot of testing and we've been quick. And hopefully we've made some good ground on Ferrari over the last two weeks."

Since Imola, Honda has made further steps with the engine, although the next major step will not be seen until the Canadian Grand Prix in June and the team has further developed the new aerodynamic package it ran at Imola.

Button has once again denied that he is driving any differently to any stage in his career, putting progress down to his machinery this year, although he did add: "I do have more experience and that helps you to work better with the team. It's nice to hear Michael and other people at Ferrari saying that they are slightly worried about us coming here, but like I said, it's going to be tough."