Fernando Alonso pronounced himself happy after Ferrari put in another busy day of running in practice for the European Grand Prix on Friday.
Alonso "happy" after going seventh fastest overall
Fernando Alonso pronounced himself happy after Ferrari put in another busy day of running in practice for the European Grand Prix on Friday.
As has often been the case so far this season, the Scuderia used the opening two sessions as an opportunity to run upgrades they hope will further improve their F2012 car.
More modifications to the chassis' already much-changed rear-end were on the agenda in Valencia, with a new diffuser as well as detail changes to the front wing and sidepods.
As such, the cars of Alonso and team-mate Felipe Massa spent much of the morning lapping in flow-vis paint as the pair performed aerodynamic checks before concentrating on tyre comparison work during the afternoon.
At the end of the day, Alonso was seventh fastest overall with Massa in 15th, the pair having completed 115 laps in total
"We try to concentrate on the tyres especially in the afternoon. Obviously it was cloudy today so things can change if it's really sunny on Saturday and Sunday in terms of track temperature so we need to wait and see," said Alonso, who currently lies second in the Championship, two points behind Lewis Hamilton.
"But at the moment, so far, we are happy with the car, happy with the balance, and we need to understand a little bit of info that we need - some of the tests Felipe did, some of the tests I did with my car.
"And then it's the same with the tyres, we ran different tyres for the long runs so we need to put it all together tonight and choose the best things."
With Ferrari working steadily to improve their car after a poor start to the season, Alonso said he did not agree that rivals such as Red Bull and McLaren had failed to progress at the same rate.
Citing the current World Champions as a case in point, Alonso added: "Red Bull did two pole positions at the last four races I think, so it's like 50 per cent - something that we cannot even dream with those results.
"So I don't think that they are too bad with the performance of the car. Maybe they aren't used to a strange combination but now it's not bad I think, 50 per cent of pole positions in the last four races."
