Ferrari are not hiding that fact that their car is still not up to the leading pace, with only three races remaining for Fernando Alonso to snatch back the championship lead from Sebastian Vettel. In Friday evening practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the Spaniard finished seventh quickest and eight tenths of a second down on the leading Red Bull.
“The day was a Friday like any other, during which we got through everything on our programme,” Alonso began. “The morning session was dedicated to a comparison of various aerodynamic solutions, while in the afternoon we concentrated on the tyres.”
Chassis Director Pat Fry gave more of a telling account.
“We are pushing as hard as we can to bring updates to every race,” explained the ex McLaren employee. “Some of the ones we introduced here seem to be positive, but we must carefully evaluate their performance and then decide which to use in qualifying and the race.
“Felipe (Massa)’s long run didn’t seem too bad, but clearly we have to improve our performance over a single lap if we want to start from the front row of the grid.”
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  S. Vettel | Red Bull | 01:41.751 | 33 |
| 2. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | 01:41.919 | 33 |
| 3. | J. Button | McLaren | 01:42.412 | 35 |
| 4. | M. Webber | Red Bull | 01:42.466 | 21 |
| 5. | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 01:42.500 | 34 |
| 6. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | 01:42.532 | 27 |
| 7. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 01:42.587 | 30 |
| 8. | F. Massa | Ferrari | 01:42.823 | 32 |
| 9. | P. Maldonado | Williams | 01:42.998 | 37 |
| 10. | S. Perez | Sauber | 01:43.106 | 36 |
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| Fernando Alonso | |||
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| Pat Fry | |||
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