Alonso: Ferrari will be hard to beat

Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen topped both sessions on Friday, showing the kind of pace that suggests the team may have taken a step forward since the United States Grand Prix.

Alonso, whose McLaren team have won the last three races in dominant style, finished down in eighth position.

"I think Ferrari are stronger, no doubt," Alonso told reporters after the session.

"On Friday we want to believe that they run with a different strategy in terms of fuel, so tomorrow we will see. But they definitely improved their car a lot so it will be very difficult to beat them."

The Spaniard, however, played down his performance and admitted it was more or less what he was expecting.

"It's only Friday," said the Spaniard. "We knew more or less regarding our strategy and our fuel that we would probably not be in the top three or top four. So eighth position is more or less as I expected."