Fernando Alonso claims Aston Martin is ready to tackle any conditions in Australia this weekend after he topped the times in a rain-impacted FP2 session on Friday.
During the only completely dry session of the day Alonso ended up fourth fastest – 0.527s behind the pacesetting Red Bull of Championship leader Max Verstappen.
But the Aston Martin driver rose to the top of the timesheets at the beginning of the second hour with a time of 1:18.887s to sit four-tenths clear of the field before the rain arrived.
Alonso’s last pole position occurred 11 years ago in the wet at the Hockenheimring in Germany and the Spaniard also excelled in tricky conditions to stick his Alpine on the front row during qualifying for last year’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Even though he is confident the team will be in competitive shape regardless of the conditions, Alonso says he and Aston Martin would prefer the rain to stay away over the next two days.
“I think the forecast is dry, so I think ideally we will prefer dry conditions because we’ve only driven this car in dry conditions in Jeddah and in Bahrain,” Alonso explained.
“A dry race will be welcome from our side, but I think we should be ready for all conditions.”
Although the rain largely made the second session redundant by denying the teams the chance to complete race simulation runs, the clearer weather in the morning at least presented them with the opportunity to assess the capabilities of their cars in drier conditions.
The Spaniard, aiming for a third consecutive podium finish on Sunday, said the initial signs were promising regarding the behaviour of his Aston Martin car.
“It was good. I think in FP1, we concentrated on some test items that we wanted to tick the box [on] and then in FP2… it was just a 20-minute [dry] session only,” he added.
“So, still some jobs to do tomorrow, especially on the tyres into the race, on long runs that we were obviously missing today. But so far, I think the car seems to behave well, so let’s see tomorrow.”
Alonso’s Aston Martin team-mate, Lance Stroll, struggled by comparison and wound up 16th in the second session, having been classified 10th in the opening hour.
Nevertheless, the Canadian driver was also pleased with the handling of his AMR23 as he aims to rebound from failing to reach the chequered flag last time out in Saudi Arabia.
“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “A great track to drive in. This morning we didn’t get the laps in but then I didn’t get a chance, not many people got the chance, to put the softs on with the rain.
“So, one of those sessions, just limited with rain. But tomorrow doesn’t look like it’s going to rain, but you never know here in Melbourne. The car is feeling good, so looking forward to tomorrow.”
