Fernando Alonso felt the performance of his McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team during practice for the Singapore Grand Prix on Friday was round about where the team expected to be, with the Spaniard finishing inside the top eight in both sessions.
Alonso, who’s future with the team remains uncertain despite their decision to switch from Honda to Renault power from the 2018 season, ended up eighth fastest in the daylight session, before improving to seventh under the floodlights of the evening session, albeit just behind team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne.
The Spaniard was expecting a resurgence from McLaren and Honda this weekend due to the nature of the Marina Bay Street Circuit, and he hopes Friday’s performance can translate into a strong qualifying and race result.
“Our performance today was good; basically in line with what we were expecting around here,” said Alonso. “We knew that, at this track, we were going to be more competitive than we were at Spa and Monza.
“We got both cars into the top ten today, and I hope we can achieve that tomorrow in qualifying and then again in Sunday’s race.
“We need those points: we’re ninth in the constructors’ championship, so every opportunity we get to score points, we need to grab with both hands.”
