Alonso confident of dry weekend

The Spaniard was one of four drivers who sat out first practice and only emerged when the track dried in the afternoon.

"The session this afternoon was far better than this morning," he said.

"We did not expect it to stay wet for the rest of the weekend so took the decision not to do any running in the morning as we wouldn't achieve any conclusive results on set-up and tyre comparison work. Also there is a new track surface here and as a result it was very slippery.

"However by this afternoon the track had dried out, and it was clear that the conditions were improving. I am looking forward to a competitive weekend."

Alonso's teammate Lewis Hamilton did participate in first practice and took fifth place, but faces a stewards' investigation after McLaren admitted to accidentally using two sets of wet tyres. Under this year's rules drivers can only use one set of wet or intermediate tyres during practice.

But he remained optimistic about his form after setting the fastest time in the afternoon.

"I enjoyed finally getting out on this amazing track, it was just a shame that the conditions were not great this morning, and we couldn't really do as much running as we would have preferred," Hamilton said.

"However, it was good to get a feel for the track, and we made reasonable progress on the set-up work and tyre comparison despite the cold conditions."