Fernando Alonso delighted his home crowd with the fastest lap in yesterday's free practice for the European Grand Prix, but remains cautious of his prospects of challenging for victory in tomorrow's race. Spain's double world champion lapped the Valencia street circuit with a best time of 1 min 39.283 secs after Germany's Nico Rosberg had set the pace in the morning for Mercedes GP.
However, the 28-year-old is not taking anything for granted as he targets his second win of the season to revitalise his championship challenge. "It's difficult to know exactly what was the improvement of the car, so we'll wait for tomorrow to see if we are really more competitive or not," Alonso told reporters. "Sometimes we've been very quick on Friday. We were P1 last year here and then P8 on Saturday so the job we have to do is tomorrow and Sunday.
"Today is just free practice to analyse some new components on the car and evaluate the tyres. So we'll see tomorrow." Although Alonso is confident Ferrari will be strong during the weekend, he admitted he is not expecting to leapfrog any rivals, despite having an updated car for the weekend, with Ferrari adding a number of new aerodynamic elements to the vehicle. "The car was good today, but it was good also in Canada," he added. "I think when you try to find a difference between one circuit and another is difficult to compare the small differences. We'll just try to concentrate on tomorrow's job, trying to get a good qualifying. I think the potential is there.
"I think we can be competitive here tomorrow, but it's never going to be easy. Red Bull is very strong, McLaren is very strong. I think we have all brought something here so it's just a matter of doing a good job tomorrow. Alonso's quickest lap, in brilliant sunshine and ambient temperatures of 25 degrees, was inside last year's pole position of 1.39.498 set by Lewis Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel was second fastest in his Red Bull-Renault, a mere 0.056 slower than Alonso, with Mark Webber, his Australian teammate, third on the timesheets.
Rosberg had earlier denied championship leader Hamilton, winner of the last two races, Jenson Button, his world championship teammate, another McLaren-Mercedes one-two in the morning session. The Mercedes driver, who has yet to win a grand prix and celebrates his 25th birthday on Sunday, with a time of 1.41.175. He was fourth in the afternoon. Mercedes have also brought major aerodynamic developments to their cars this weekend in a bid to close the gap on championship leaders McLaren.
Rosberg's teammate, seven times world champion Michael Schumacher, was only eighth fastest before lunch while Vettel and Webber were sixth and seventh. Poland's Robert Kubica looked competitive in both sessions, with fourth and sixth places respectively. The first session was halted when a mirror fell off Bruno Senna's HRT and was run over by Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi, leaving debris on the track. The afternoon practice was also briefly red flagged when Ferrari's Felipe Massa spun and stalled.
Indian Karun Chandhok, Senna's teammate, sat out the morning with Austrian test driver Christian Klien given some mileage in the car instead. Britain's Paul di Resta, Force India's reserve, also made a return to Friday practice in the place of regular race driver Adrian Sutil for the first session, before the German went back in the car for the second session. * Compiled by Graham Caygill, with agencies
