McLaren's good Baku F1 form deceptive - Jenson Button

McLaren starred in the opening session in Azerbaijan, with Fernando Alonso fourth and Button seventh.

Button fell back to ninth later on, while Alonso was 11th and lost running to a hydraulic problem.

Though both still believe they can reach Q3, Button thinks the strong Friday morning was just because McLaren got the hang of the circuit quicker than others.

"Now that everyone's got to grips with the track it's put us in our place a little bit," he said.

"This is probably the worst circuit for us on the calendar.

"If we do a good lap, we can still fight for Q3, which is good. The race could be a little bit tricky for us."

The main reason for Button's scepticism is the long straight in the final sector, where he thinks Honda's deficit will be costly.

"In the last sector we were nine tenths off the Mercedes in FP1 and six tenths off the other quick cars," he said.

"We're losing a lot of time there and it's something we've got to try and work on.

"Difficult to really know what we can do, though.

"There's a long straight here and lap one is going to be difficult."

Alonso was more hopeful.

"I think we are a little bit more competitive than what we thought before coming here," he said.

"I still think Q3 tomorrow is very possible.

"If we are there and we can score good points this weekend, it will be good news.

"I think we are in a similar position to the last couple of weekends.

"Q3 and points should be the target for both cars."