• Korean Grand Prix - FP2

Alonso 'expects to struggle' in Korea

Fernando Alonso was 0.771s off the pace in FP2 © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• Race:
• Korean Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso says Ferrari "can expect to struggle" in Sunday's Korean Grand Prix after being unable to match Mercedes and Red Bull in practice.

While Lewis Hamilton set the pace in both sessions, the top four - consisting of both Mercedes and both Red Bulls - were covered by 0.171s during FP2. Although Felipe Massa was able to get within half a second of Hamilton's time, Alonso was over 0.75s off and is bracing himself for more of the same throughout the rest of the weekend.

"On this track too it's aerodynamics that make the difference and for that reason, I am not expecting too many surprises when compared to the last few grands prix," Alonso said. "The time sheet follows the order that continues to be more or less the same seen in previous weekends and there is every probability that, again here, we can expect to struggle in the race.

"The difference between the two compounds is not as evident as in Singapore, but the Supersoft definitely has a very high degradation and we will have to see how much the track surface improvement will affect its behaviour. It won't be easy for us in performance terms, but we know that apart from that, we can do well on Sunday. Now, we must try and get the most out of what we have available and put everything together tomorrow and in the race."

However, Massa was more bullish after finishing the afternoon session in fifth place.

"It's only Friday and we still need to understand where we are compared to our rivals," Massa said. "Even if we saw that Mercedes and Red Bull are very strong, I hope to have a more competitive car than in recent races, which will allow me to fight."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.