• Italian Grand Prix - FP2

Beating Red Bull will be hard work - Alonso

Fernando Alonso: "Some of the updates we brought here for this race seem to be working well" © Associated Press

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Fernando Alonso says Ferrari has a lot of work to do to catch Red Bull at the Italian Grand Prix this weekend.

Sebastian Vettel was 0.6s clear of the rest of the field in second practice at Monza on Friday, with Alonso 0.877s off in fifth. The Ferrari driver waned against reading too much into the times but conceded that his team is facing an uphill struggle.

"The feeling is the same as any Friday, which means we're neither very happy nor very disappointed with our performance level and we will have to wait and see how qualifying goes before getting a true picture," he said. "Red Bull seems very strong again here and we will have to do a lot of work to be as well prepared as possible for qualifying, in order to find those missing tenths. Although we have yet to analyse the data we have gathered today, some of the updates we brought here for this race seem to be working well, while others will require a bit more evaluation."

Alonso is hoping the weather forecast, which is for scattered thunderstorms over the weekend, will play into Ferrari's hands.

"We must get the most out of what we have available and try to have a good qualifying and a good race in front of our home crowd. Let's hope the weather will also be on our side, as the forecast for Sunday is for storms and that's why we must be ready to deal with whatever the conditions will be. Tyre degradation is very low here and we will definitely see fewer stops than at other races."

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