Alpine was looking for race settings

Alpine riders Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon set a sixth and ninth fastest time in the second practice session in Barcelona. The team tested updates to the car and looked for race settings.

Fernando Alonso (6th): “We had a productive day. Since our last visit to Barcelona for winter testing, the car has changed a lot, so today it was important to check a lot. We evaluated some solutions and worked with tires according to the standard program.

The team has managed to collect useful information, but it is clear that we still need to improve the car tomorrow. The balance leaves much to be desired, which means that a lot of work has to be done in the evening to prepare as best as possible for qualifying.

I enjoyed watching the full stands and I hope that tomorrow we will please the fans with an interesting show.”

Esteban Ocon (9th): “It’s great to be behind the wheel again in Barcelona. It’s nice to see how much the car has changed compared to winter testing. We are definitely going in the right direction – I noticed a difference.

Today we showed times in the top ten, which is positive, but there is no doubt that we still have some work to do. After two training sessions, we know which areas to focus on to compete for high positions tomorrow. We have managed to collect a lot of information for analysis, which allows us to approach qualifying in the best possible way.”

Pat Fry, Technical Director: “Today was a relatively standard and trouble-free Friday. We ran the usual program, working on long and short series of circles.

The car is quite competitive on a fast lap, so we experimented more with the settings on long runs and collected enough data to study tonight. At the moment our priority is to increase the race pace.

The innovations we have brought to Barcelona have allowed us to take small steps forward, but even those are important. The novelties have caught on and we are happy with how the weekend is going.”