Abu Dhabi GP: Alonso fears difficult qualifying after FP2 problems

The glitch caused his car to stop on track before he could set a time in the evening session, and although the Ferrari was recovered to the pits, there was insufficient time to get it running again.

Although Alonso had managed 22 laps and been third quickest in practice one, with both that session and Saturday's opening hour running in afternoon daylight, the Spaniard thinks that mileage will be little use for the evening qualifying and race conditions.

"It was a real shame losing the opportunity to take part in the second free practice session, as it's the only chance to get an idea of how things will really go this weekend," he said.

"On my second lap, the car just stopped unexpectedly and even though the marshals did their best to push the car back to the pits in time to get it back out on track, the work took the mechanics longer than expected.

"In the first session, we managed to complete our programme and the car behaved as expected, but the temperature, much hotter than it will be in qualifying and the race, means the data we acquired is not that relevant.

"For the same reason, tomorrow's third session won't be that useful and that means the first lap to match conditions in qualifying and the race, in the dark in the afternoon, will be the first lap in Q1.

"We definitely won't be that well prepared but all the same, we will try our best as usual."

Kimi Raikkonen was seventh fastest on Friday, saying his car improved in the evening after it had "felt rather nervous" in practice one.