Alonso confident of smaller gap to RBR

The Spaniard, the controversial winner of the previous race in Germany, finished around half a second off the pace set by Sebastian Vettel in second practice.

And although Alonso conceded it will be hard to beat Red Bull to pole position, he is confident the gap will be smaller when it counts.

"We are happy but we know Friday means very little. We all try different things. It's only Friday but so far quite happy," said Alonso.

"I think we need to see tomorrow. Today we had a slower pace than Red Bull, but we need to also see the conditions they were running, and the conditions we were running, so you never know.

"We also had some traffic in the important laps as well, so we remain confident that the difference is not as big as it seems.

"But obviously they seem stronger than in Hockenheim. We know that we need to do something good tonight if we are to fight for pole position tomorrow."

The Ferrari driver also refused to rule out McLaren, despite the British squad struggling for pace today.

"I think it's always important to do well and to close the gap to the leaders, who at the moment are McLaren in both championships," he said. "So all the points we can get in this race is okay, but I think we need to wait for tomorrow.

"We have seen McLaren with problems on Friday, but then they score a lot of points. At Silverstone they struggled a lot and then finished second and fourth. "