F1 | McLaren: Alonso and Vandoorne's comments at the end of Free Practice at Silverstone

Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne finished the first day at Silverstone in ninth and sixteenth place respectively in the timesheets.

The drivers ran mixed programs to maximize learning on this particular circuit, where finding an optimal balance between straight line speed and corner speed is very difficult.

Both drivers and engineers are satisfied with the results of today's program and will work to refine the cars for tomorrow's qualifying.

FERNANDO ALONSO
“I'm pretty happy with how my day went. We have several options that we need to look at now to choose the best for tomorrow, but we mainly focused on the race pace because we know we will start from behind due to the penalty. As we know, lap times are not significant on Friday. For the last couple of races we have been between 8th and 12th position, so we have to wait and see what happens tomorrow. The main issue here is choosing what level of downforce you want to have. Depending on how much power you have, you get a few wings to be fast in the corners and defend on the straights, or if you have little power and want to be reasonably okay on the straights you have to use the smaller wing. It's difficult to judge."

STOFFEL VANDOORNE
“Today is actually a good start to our weekend. Given that it's a long circuit, with lots of high-speed corners, I think our car performed – I felt quite comfortable out there. As usual, the times in the middle of the pack are very close, so it will be the smaller details that will make the difference during tomorrow's qualifying. At the moment, we are still exploring the limits of the car – particularly in the Becketts section of the lap. I think both Fernando and I had a moment during that part of the lap that we lost the rear as we entered the final section. Fernando and I tried many different downforce configurations during today's sessions. Now I think we have a good idea of ​​how we should race tomorrow – we've done some good learning."