Alonso buoyant after 'good Friday' for Alpine

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The Alpine F1 team was looking in strong form at the end of second practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, with Esteban Ocon and Fernando finishing the day in fourth and fifth place respectively.

"We can be pleased with this productive start to the race weekend," said the team's racing director Davide Brivio. "We know this track is challenging, especially for our car in the past.

"It was a busy day for us, especially with our work in FP2 this afternoon on both low and high fuel," he added. "We tested a few different items on both cars, which gives us some good information to go through

Read also: FP2: Hamilton and Bottas end Friday quickest in Barcelona

"Of course, the work continues tonight and tomorrow morning in order to be ready for when it really counts."

"It was a good Friday for us today," Alonso declared for his part. "Overall I am pleased with our two sessions and I think the car balance feels good.

"Over the two sessions we concentrated on some small upgrades that we brought to the car this weekend, and then collected some good information about the tyres and our car set-up.

"It gives me confidence for tomorrow. Let’s see where we are for qualifying.”

As for Ocon, the French driver was less than three tenths behind Lewis Hamilton's top time and declared that "we can be happy with our day’s work" at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

"As a team we made a good step from FP1 to FP2, and I felt that in the car," he continued. "The aim is to repeat that in FP3 and make another step in performance.

"It was a busy two sessions, lots of things tried on both cars and that gives us a lot to analyse to find more speed.

"It’s always tricky in Barcelona with the grip and tyre usage so there’s lots for us to learn and understand," he added. "The new Turn 10 was interesting and, on our side, we have room for improvement there."

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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.