Alonso positive despite car troubles

He had run trouble-free up until today, but was sidelined for two spells due to electrical and mechanical failures on the F150 Italia.

Alonso still completed 90 laps and finished the day third fastest though, and says he is pleased with the team's progress during the pre-season.

"So far testing has been a surprise for us, with no big problems in the car," he said. "Today is the first day we've had some mechanical issues, but it's not too worrying. We are putting a lot of mileage on the car. Everything is working well.

"We know that to see how competitive we are, we need to wait for the first two or three races. Then it will be time to say if the car is good enough or not. At the moment, everything feels okay for us."

Alonso added that Ferrari has found a similar level of tyre degredation here as at the first two tests.

"To be honest, it's not a big difference compared with what we found at Jerez and Valencia," he said. "The tyres are still degrading a lot on the long runs, maybe here it's not only the rear tyres but also the left front.

"It's very demanding [for the left front] here at Barcelona on Turn 3, Turn 4 and Turn 9, so it's a little bit more than normal, but the degradation is something that we already saw at Jerez and Valencia, no big difference here."