Old age is the most appropriate description to describe Fernando Alonso's action. The veteran racer made a surprise appearance on the first day of F1 Bahrain 2023, Friday (3/3). The Aston Martin team driver also gave a message that he was ready to fight the top team.
Two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso topped the second free practice (FP2) of the Bahrain 2023 F1 on Friday night, leaving behind the Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes teams.
Fernando Alonso ended Friday's practice session as the fastest driver with a time of 1:30.907.
0.169 seconds faster than Red Bull team driver and defending F1 world champion Max Verstappen.
Another Red Bull team driver, Sergio Perez in third place was only 0.002 seconds adrift of Verstappen.
As quoted from GridOto.com, Fernando Alonso thinks it's only a matter of time until he can challenge on the front row.
"Well, obviously this is another step in the right direction. The car still feels good but we'll see," said the 41-year-old racer about the results of FP1 F1 Bahrain 2023, quoted by Sky Sports.
"Right now, there's still not much focus on time because we have to improve some things on the car in terms of setup, and it's still early," he added.
"Even in the meeting, the approach to the race, we changed a lot of things and tried to strengthen the team in every area, not just on car performance," he said.
According to the Spaniard, it will be a very interesting process and the team is learning every day.
"Let's see what happens in the first few races. Right now it's just a test session," he said.
"I think Lawrence (Stroll) has a vision for everything he does and it's very difficult to see Lawrence fail at anything he has in his vision," Alonso said, referring to the Aston Martin team owner.
"It's only a matter of time before Aston Martin can challenge the top teams. We are in an exciting process with a completely new car, a new technical department, and a lot of things we are learning and there is still a long way to go," he concluded.
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