Fernando Alonso was delighted with his and Aston Martin's performance during Thursday's practice sessions at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but was cautious about his prospects for the rest of the weekend despite topping FP2.
Alonso was never far from the leader of the timesheets as the action was underway at the Jeddah Corniche circuit. The Spaniard finished the first practice hour in second place, over a tenth of a second from Max Verstappen in P1.
Also Read: FP2: Alonso faster than Russell and Verstappen in second practice in Saudi Arabia
Alonso was one place better in second practice, with the 42-year-old setting the fastest lap of the day when he clocked 1m 28.827s on the soft tyre.
After pacing throughout Thursday, Alonso was asked how he felt following his particularly strong display in FP2.
“I feel good,” replied the two-time world champion. “Obviously it's just free practice. As we saw last year and in Bahrain, we're faster in free practice than in qualifying. I think we're running different strategies in terms of fuel loads, engine patterns and so on.
“We have our plan going forward. [There were] Really no problem with the car. Configuration options [are] Tomorrow is also very open. But yes, definitely a good Thursday for us.
Also Read: FP1: Verstappen leads Alonso and Perez during first practice in Saudi Arabia
Pushed for his thoughts on Aston Martin's long-run pace ahead of Saturday night's grand prix, Alonso insisted he had yet to read up on it.
“We jump out of the car and we have to come here to talk to you, so I don't know anything,” he added.
'It's always so much fun to drive here' – smile and stroll after the first day in Jeddah
It was a good day at Jeddah for Alonso's team-mate Lance Stroll, who finished ninth and sixth in the first and second practice respectively, although the Canadian was black-and-white flagged for breaching track limits during FP2.
Stroll spoke positively about the experience of driving at the circuit, saying after the second practice session: “It's really fun to drive here, super fast. So excited in the car, yeah, it's great.
READ MORE: Alonso highlights importance of Aston Martin development race as they 'have to overcome this deficit'
How he hopes to extract potential from AMR24 throughout the rest of the weekend, the 25-year-old added: “Push on.”
