Fernando Alonso appreciated the best Friday Aston Martin has had in a long time as the Spanish racer put together an amazing run in both FP1 and FP2. The green-liveried team has been on an impressive run since they got the upgrade in Imola.
Since then, the car has shown amazing performance, especially on tracks with higher downforce. The race in Hungary was one of those races where Fernando Alonso would secure an impressive result for the team.
This weekend in Singapore, once again, the track demands lean more towards a high downforce setup. Right from the start of the FP1, Fernando Alonso was right on pace with the frontrunners and looked competitive on all compounds of tires.
In a conversation with F1TV afterwards, the Spanish admitted that there were certainly positives to be taken from the day but made it clear that the team had to wait until Saturday to see how things took place. He said,
“It seems a little bit better than the previous Grand Prix. Let’s try to fine-tune the set-up; it’s still not in a happy place, especially on the front axle, still a little bit too much understeer. It’s something to work on tonight. I think since the first lap in FP1 we were in a comfortable place, and we were able to find the limits quite quickly."
He added:
“In FP2 obviously the red flags didn’t help to see the full picture, so I don’t know the top teams if they put the lap together or not, but let’s see if we can be in Q3 tomorrow and [score] points on Sunday. I think both sessions in the top four, probably it’s the best Friday so far. But as I said, sometimes on Friday we run with different programmes than the others, or different fuel."
Lance Stroll agrees with Fernando Alonso's sentiments about the day
Fernando Alons's teammate, Lance Stroll, echoed the Spanish racer's sentiments about the car, as the Canadian racer also believed that the Aston Martin was doing well around Singapore. Talking about how the day went, Stroll felt that the team managed to improve the car a lot throughout the day, as he said,
“Some good laps today. We learnt a lot. I think we improved the car from the beginning of the day to the end of the day, so that was good. It was very different [in FP2], for sure. With the temperature dropping, the sun coming down, it was a very different track. But I had a good feeling in the car, we were competitive in that session, so we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”
Fernando Alonso has won in Singapore multiple times, with wins in 2008 and 2010. The Spanish would be hoping for a great result even though the exact position of the Aston Martin on the current pecking order is hard to predict.