- Russian GP - FP2
Alonso encouraged by opening day at Sochi
Fernando Alonso thinks Ferrari is on the right track to be prepared fully for qualifying after an eye-opening first day of practice at the Sochi Audodrom.
Throughout the day it was clear there were improvements to be made as the track rubbered in, with both the medium and soft compounds getting faster over a sustained number of laps. Though there are still plenty of question-marks Alonso is confident he can head into Saturday afternoon's qualifying session feeling good what is to come from the car.
"We worked a lot on set-up and found the two compounds had behaved in similar fashion and tyre performance improved as the laps went by," Alonso said. "The track is very hard on brakes, but that is a specific thing we can work on this evening to be well prepared for qualifying."
Alonso says he enjoyed the learning process at the Russia circuit and is happy how quickly he managed to adapt to the new surroundings.
"The track is very unusual and I didn't think that Formula One had already got such a large following here. Also surprising today was the good level of grip from the track surface, which is unusual on a brand new circuit. From this point of view, I felt comfortable right from the first lap and that helped a lot when it came to today's most important job, namely learning the track.
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