Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Alonso wary of false position for McLaren

Fernando Alonso says McLaren could be in a false position following Friday practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

With the McLaren more suited to the Hungaroring due to the circuit putting less emphasis on outright power, Alonso ended FP2 in eighth place, just ahead of the two Williams drivers. However, with Force India sitting the session out after a component failure in the morning, Alonso believes McLaren could drop back in qualifying.

"We have seen on Fridays that some people are not showing their potential," Alonso said. "Williams on Friday sometimes run quite heavy and slow and then on Saturday they are very competitive. Force India didn’t run today in FP2, so there are some cars that will potentially be in front of us tomorrow.

"I’m happy with the performance of the car and it’s a little bit better every race. It was a trouble-free Friday for us and both cars completed the programme without any issues. It was a positive start for us, but the important thing is tomorrow in qualifying and especially in the race."

Despite his words of caution, Alonso is still encouraged by the start McLaren has made in Budapest.

"I think it’s a combination of circuit characteristics that are just slightly better for our car. Obviously the car keeps improving and every week it’s getting better and better and it has been a good Friday. But the weekend is long and we need to see tomorrow how competitive we are and especially on Sunday where we can finish the race and hopefully score some points."

REPORT: Hamilton heads Red Bull pair in FP2 hit by another red flag

Click here for a gallery of Sergio Perez's crash in FP1 at the Hungarian Grand Prix

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.