Friday times insignificant - Alonso

Ferrari struggled to get its tyres up to temperature
in the damp conditions © Sutton Images

Fernando Alonso believes the wet conditions during Friday practice for the Korean Grand Prix suited McLaren and is not reading too much into the advantage Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button held at the end of the afternoon session.

The drivers had to cope with standing water during the morning session and neither Ferrari completed a flying lap, while intermediates were the tyre of choice in the afternoon. Alonso finished fourth fastest, 1.946s off Hamilton's pace, but said the times would be meaningless on Saturday when dry weather is forecast.

"It was quite a difficult Friday, with the weather changing throughout, making it almost impossible to draw any useful conclusions for the rest of the weekend," Alonso said. "When one considers that it should not rain tomorrow or on Sunday, then it becomes even clearer why this day had little if any significance to offer."

Ferrari was experimenting with some conceptual parts for 2012 during the session, but Alonso said it was difficult to get any meaningful data.

"The objective is still to do the best we can and in this case, to understand as much as possible about the handling of the car at this track," he said. "We also had a new front wing to try, but it was definitely very difficult to evaluate it in conditions like these, conditions which were ideal for the McLarens for example."

He said Ferrari's main problem was its long-standing issue of warming up the tyres.

"We need more laps to bring the tyres up to temperature and then, when we get there, maybe the tyres are already beginning to go off a bit," Alonso explained. "We will have to improvise a bit both in qualifying and the race. The entry to the pit lane is much improved compared to last year, but there is still room to do better with the exit."

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