Fernando Alonso was pleased to have been able to recover from an early setback after missing out on track time in first practice due to a brake issue on his McLaren F1 Team car.
The Spaniard, making his first appearance at the Circuit de Monaco in two years, only completed sixteen laps in the morning sessions compared to his team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne’s thirty seven.
Alonso bounced back in the afternoon after his mechanics fixed the problem to finish ninth in the afternoon but was fractionally slower than Vandoorne.
“A tough day.
“In the first session, I had an issue with the brakes and we lost most of the morning.
“That was quite disappointing because you need as many laps as possible around here to build up your confidence.
“The guys in the garage did a great job and the car was fully ready for the second session, when we were able to recover some of those lost laps.
Alonso has won the Monaco Grand Prix twice back in 2006 and 2007 and is very aware of the track evolution and the need to get qualifying right.
“Due to the track evolution, you drive one car in FP1, a different one in FP2, and an entirely new one in qualifying, where you are two seconds quicker. So it’s important to adapt – we need to be flexible.
“Qualifying here is 99 per cent of the race, so once you put a good lap together on Saturday, the race becomes a little bit easier.
“There’s still more to come from us. Hopefully, we can put a good lap together on Saturday.”
