Formula 1 | McLaren, Alonso: “In general it was a fairly linear Friday”

Eighth and thirteenth positions for Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne in free practice for the French Grand Prix, eighth round of the 2018 Formula One World Championship. The Spaniard from McLaren, after the difficulties experienced during the morning session, managed to improve the set-up of the MCL33, putting together good mileage in view of qualifying. Different situation for the Belgian, slightly more in difficulty with his car.

Here are the words of Fernando Alonso: “The weather conditions proved to be quite complicated today and the wind played an important role in FP1. During the afternoon, however, the direction changed and this upset our plans. Overall it was a fairly linear Friday, used mostly to learn the circuit and sort out the set-up. The track is good and the asphalt does its job very well. I really like the last sector, with turns 11 and 12 which proved to be quite challenging."

“Due to the Virtual Safety Car we lost the opportunity to test the softer compounds over long distances, but we will try to make up for lost time tomorrow. We can still improve and we hope to do so already in free practice 3.", he added.

Here are Stoffel Vandoorne's impressions: “To be honest I have mixed feelings about this first day. The wind made everything more complicated and we saw many cars turn around. In FP1 we weren't able to be competitive, while the situation improved in the afternoon. The direction of the wind helped us a lot."

“The degradation of the compounds seemed ok, but during free practice 2 there was a big evolution of the track and we managed to manage the use of the tires better. Furthermore, the heat made our task easier. The last few races have been complicated for us, but we hope to be able to end a good weekend."he concluded.