Alonso: Today was a case of so far, so good

With both McLarens inside the top ten in practice, Fernando Alonso says he needs to deliver and do a “perfect lap” to ensure a similar result come qualifying.

McLaren’s Bahrain Grand Prix weekend got off to a solid start with Alonso’s ninth fastest on Friday night with a 1:31.282.

His team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne was a tenth slower.

McLaren, who ran several new parts on the MCL32, are chasing a top ten come Saturday’s qualifying with Alonso saying there is more to come from the car.

“Today was a case of so far, so good’,” said the Spaniard.

“The weekend has started in a positive way and there’s nothing in particular to worry about.

“There is a lot of analysis that we need to do concerning some of the new parts we have on our two cars, so I think we need to put everything together now and find the best compromise for tomorrow.

“Our aim for qualifying is to be in Q3 – a target we missed in Australia – and we need to deliver and do a perfect lap, so that we can beat some of the cars in front of us.

“It’s good that we completed our programme today.

“It’s always very important, especially in the evening session, to do as many laps as possible and understand the tyres, as we probably had higher degradation than we expected and we need to take this into account for Sunday.

“There’s a little bit more to extract from the car and hopefully we’ll do that tomorrow.”