Alonso: “Overall a good Friday in Malaysia”

Fernando Alonso ended Friday's Malaysian GP with the fifth fastest time. In the first free practice session the Spaniard had not gone beyond the 11th fastest time. However, the Ferrari driver seemed satisfied with today's program.

“We find ourselves in a not unusual study phase for this start of the championship and to know our level of competitiveness we will, as always, have to wait for Saturday and Sunday” commented Alonso. “Usually Friday is a very confusing day, because everyone works following different programs, but this year it is even more so because of the novelty factor” added the two-time world champion. “Overall everything went well, we had no reliability problems and I managed to do a sufficient number of laps to understand the behavior of the tyres, which with the temperatures here will be a very important factor. The hard compound seems more resistant over long distances, but it is still too early to comment on the qualifying and race strategy. For now the only certainty is that we have to do everything perfectly” concluded Alonso.