Fernando Alonso reckoned it was a strong opening day to the Dutch Grand Prix on Friday for the BWT Alpine F1 Team, with the Spaniard ending seventh fastest overall.
The Spaniard, who equalled his best finish of the season last weekend when he took fifth place in the Belgian Grand Prix, started by putting his A522 into eighth place in the opening hour of practice before improving in the afternoon to seventh.
Alonso says there was a lot of track evolution throughout the day at the Circuit Zandvoort, and it will be important for Alpine to take that into account when preparing for the rest of the weekend.
“It was a decent Friday for us,” said Alonso. “It is a very different circuit to what we experienced last weekend in Spa.
“It’s a fun place to drive Formula 1 cars around, it’s like a rollercoaster with all of the bumps. The car feels good so far and I think we’ve seen a lot of track evolution today as it was quite dusty across the circuit this morning.
“We’re going to evaluate everything now, but we are pleased with our progress so far.”
“We’ll need to look at and try to find the areas where we can improve” – Esteban Ocon
Team-mate Esteban Ocon also felt Alpine were in a good place going into the rest of the weekend in The Netherlands, with the Frenchman ending ninth fastest in both sessions.
Ocon says they got through a lot of their practice plans during Friday’s running, including running Pirelli’s hardest compound, and now it will be a case of understanding everything they have learned and finding the improvements needed to qualify inside the top ten.
“It’s good to be back in Zandvoort at a track I enjoy driving at with its unique undulation and layout,” Ocon said. “Our Friday ended with both cars in the top ten in both practice sessions and that’s a decent start to our weekend.
“Tonight we’ll need to look at and try to find the areas where we can improve. We’ll also approach tomorrow with good understanding on how the tyres are behaving, especially since we have tested the hardest compound today and it’s not something we usually do on Fridays.
“There’s plenty of work to do with the team to be ready for an all-important qualifying session tomorrow.”
Esteban Ocon was ninth fastest in both sessions on Friday – Credit: BWT Alpine F1 Team