McLaren are looking to score some much needed points in Hungary and will line up 'best of the rest' on Sunday's grid when Renault's Nico Hulkenberg serves his five-place gearbox penalty.
Fernando Alonso will start seventh ahead of team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne, taking up row four, behind the Ferraris, Mercedes and Red Bulls.
The Spaniard is hopeful of holding position in Sunday's Hungarian GP, a target he feels is realistic pending a good race start.
"It’s been a positive weekend so far for us as a team," said Alonso. "We knew the top three teams would effectively be out of reach, so fighting for seventh and eighth was the maximum target we could aim for today. And, indeed, that’s where we’ll start tomorrow.
"There are no points to gain on Saturday, so hopefully we can convert those positions in the race and score some good points. They’re very much needed by the team at the moment.
"In terms of race pace we should be okay. This is a circuit where it’s difficult to overtake; the tyres are very stable and have low degradation so I think that, if we have a good start, we should have a good chance to maintain our positions – that’s the target for tomorrow."
Team boss Eric Boullier is confident McLaren can lift itself higher in the standings with a "strong" points haul tomorrow.
"We always knew that this was likely to be a strong track for us, so to line up seventh and eighth – effectively the ‘best of the rest’ underlines the inherent pace of our package.
"But I think what’s more satisfying is that we’ve shown such consistent pace throughout the whole weekend. That gives us the confidence to believe that we can convert these starting positions into equally strong points-scoring places tomorrow."
He added: “Both drivers have been extremely closely matched in every session, and there’s a feeling that we’re really pulling together as a cohesive team now. It’s safe to say that we’re all looking forward to an intense, fun and productive grand prix tomorrow."
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