He may have been pleased that Ferrari’s wind tunnel readings have transferred to a boosted on-track performance, but Fernando Alonso is still fully aware that the Italian team has much work to do ahead of his home Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Scuderia began their day by sampling a new front wing which was run by Felipe Massa, with Alonso using the older version to enable an accurate comparison.
“First impressions are positive: some parts worked as we expected, others less so, but broadly speaking it confirms the tendency we had already seen in Mugello last week, which is that the data emerging form the wind tunnel has been confirmed on-track,” reported the winner of 2006, having triumphed on that occasion with Renault.
“Today, conditions were obviously very different to when we were here for the winter tests: it’s much hotter and the track surface conditions have therefore changed, with temperatures approaching 45º C. We tried to adapt the car setup to the track conditions, but we are not yet completely satisfied: there is still work to do.
“Actually, it was a rather different Friday to usual, with the times even more mixed up than we have seen at the first four races this year. The tyres? No surprises, we know them sufficiently well now after all the kilometres we have done this winter and in the first part of the championship. The Softs seem quicker, the Hards more consistent, so nothing new there.”
Alonso ended his day in 14th place, three positions behind team-mate Massa.
Series
Formula 1
Personalities
Fernando Alonso
Teams
Ferrari
Other
DTM Tickets (best price guarantee!) at Sportstadium.com
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  J. Button | McLaren | 01:23.399 | 38 |
| 2. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:23.563 | 38 |
| 3. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 01:23.771 | 41 |
| 4. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 01:23.909 | 32 |
| 5. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | 01:23.918 | 32 |
| 6. | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 01:23.964 | 37 |
| 7. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 01:24.065 | 34 |
| 8. | M. Schumacher | Mercedes | 01:24.080 | 36 |
| 9. | K. Kobayashi | Sauber | 01:24.214 | 41 |
| 10. | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | 01:24.365 | 22 |
| Full results | ||||
| Fernando Alonso | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |
| More Fernando Alonso photos | |||
English
Nederlands
Español
Italiano
