The BWT Alpine F1 Team had an incredible opening day to the returning Australian Grand Prix, with both Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon ending the day well inside the top ten.
The A522 appears to be performing strongly at the newly surfaced and transformed Albert Park Circuit, as Alonso ended Friday in a brilliant fourth with Ocon close-behind in sixth.
The Spaniard ended the opening day just under six-tenths behind pacesetter Charles Leclerc, whilst Ocon was almost nine tenths off the Monegasque driver. Only three tenths separated the two Alpine drivers, Alonso’s best lap was a 1:19.537, whilst Ocon’s was a 1:19.842.
The new surface has clearly done its job, in eliminating the usual bumpy surface that normally greets the drivers and replacing it with a beautifully smooth one. Alpine’s Sporting Director, Alan Permane, discussed this point as well as the team’s opening day performance.
“It’s great to be back in Melbourne as it’s certainly one of the highlights of the Formula 1 calendar. The recent resurfacing and track modifications have transformed Albert Park from one of the bumpiest to a smooth and flowing circuit. In terms of our performance today, we can be reasonably pleased with the cars in both practice sessions, there’s still work to do, especially in extracting the most from the Soft tyre on the first timed lap for qualifying.
“We ran the Medium and Hard tyres with high fuel to assess race performance and this looked in line with our simulations. Overtaking will be difficult on Sunday so it’s essential to extract the maximum from all elements in qualifying.”
