Alonso: Little significance in Friday running

Fernando Alonso says there are few conclusions to be drawn from Friday practice in Korea

Fernando Alonso insisted there was little significance in the results of Friday practice for the Korean Grand Prix after wet weather affected both sessions at the Yeongam circuit.

The Ferrari driver was fourth fastest on after the two sessions on Friday but ended the afternoon nearly two seconds behind the quickest time posted by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

However, the Spaniard wasn't unduly concerned by the gap to the front given the conditions on track and said there wasn't much that could be drawn from the results.

“It was quite a difficult Friday, with the weather changing throughout, making it almost impossible to draw any useful conclusions for the rest of the weekend,” he said. “When one considers that it should not rain tomorrow or on Sunday, then it becomes even clearer why this day had little if any significance to offer.

“The objective is still to do the best we can and in this case, to understand as much as possible about the handling of the car at this track. We also had a new front wing to try, but it was definitely very difficult to evaluate it in conditions like these, conditions which were ideal for the McLarens for example.

“We need more laps to bring the tyres up to temperature and then, when we get there, maybe the tyres are already beginning to go off a bit. We will have to improvise a bit both in qualifying and the race. The entry to the pit lane is much improved compared to last year, but there is still room to do better with the exit.”

Team-mate Felipe Massa ended the day seventh fastest in the second Ferrari but he admitted to concerns about the degradation of the intermediate Pirelli tyres.

“Rather a complicated day,” he said. “The track did not provide much grip and degradation on the intermediates seems to be more significant than usual: there is no other way to explain the fact that, even if an ever drier line was emerging, the times did not drop. Obviously, it makes it difficult to prepare as well as possible for the race and qualifying, but it's the same for everyone.”

Source: Crash.net