Alonso hopes to avoid wet weather 'gamble' in Hungary

©AstonMartin

Fernando Alonso hopes that conditions remain dry at the Hungaroring for the remainder of the race weekend, to avoid the inevitable "gamble" that comes with a wet track.

Ahead of this weekend's round of racing in Budapest, the Spaniard had singled out the Hungaroring as one of several venues – along with Monaco and Singapore – where Aston Martin could possibly challenge Red Bull.

But F1 teams' preparations were unsettled on Friday due to a washed-out first practice session, while Alonso clocked in eighth fastest in yesterday's FP2.

"It was obviously a compromised day with FP1 being wet so there was a shorter time for everybody to set up the car," the two-time world champion explained.

"But we maximised the car going into FP2 and the race conditions.

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"I'd prefer dry [conditions] as normally in wet conditions you are gambling on which tyres and the track conditions. In the dry, you usually get the position you deserve.

"Generally, I am quite happy with today and we'll see what we can do in qualifying."

©AstonMartin

On the other side of the Aston garage, Lance Stroll said the team's AMR23 was still a work in progress in terms of optimizing the car's set-up.

"We had limited running in FP1, only recording about 10 laps due to the heavy rainfall," he said. "FP2 became busier with a few different test items to run on the AMR23.

"Thankfully, the rain held off and we got a good number of laps in and worked through a decent amount of the programme.

"I think there are still a few changes we can make ahead of Qualifying, so we’ll work through our learnings tonight and look forward to tomorrow."

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