McLaren is "on the front foot" heading into Austrian Grand Prix qualifying, according to racing director Eric Boullier, who described the squad's Friday as "encouraging".
The team is running Honda's latest upgrade this weekend – dubbed Spec 3 – which it hopes will push its drivers a little higher up the order.
Fernando Alonso was eighth quickest in second practice, a tenth off Haas' Kevin Magnussen, who led the midfield pack behind the Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull cars.
"It’s been a pretty productive first day here in Austria," said Boullier. "Honda has introduced its Spec 3 power unit upgrade for both cars, and it seems like a fairly useful step in performance.
"Taking the lap-times at face value today, we looked reasonably competitive, despite neither Fernando nor Stoffel [Vandoorne] really feeling that their MCL32s were dialed in properly."
Boullier expects that more can be extracted from both the engine and car set-up ahead of Sunday's race.
“There’s still a fair amount of work for us to do this evening if we’re to maximise the set-up ahead of qualifying tomorrow, but I feel encouraged that we’re on the front foot and carrying good momentum after the first day of running."
Alonso is aware that the smallest of gains can make the difference with such a close grid – in practice seventh to 15th was split by less than half a second – and is also aware that the weather could play a part in the race this weekend.
"There are seven or eight drivers all within a few tenths of each other – tomorrow, we’ll find out if we’re in the upper or lower part of this group," added the Spaniard.
"Finally, the weather looks unstable for both Saturday and Sunday. Unless you’re fighting for the championship, some unexpected rain is always welcome. That can go either way for you, but when you have little to lose it usually works fine…"
