Happy Alonso predicts strong weekend

The double world champion, fourth in the morning at a circuit where he took his first Grand Prix win for Renault in 2003, laid down the fastest lap of the day on a sultry afternoon at the Hungaroring.

Now the McLaren driver is confident his team will be able to stay strong all weekend.

"Today was good and I am happy with the how the car feels so far," Alonso said. "We spent the morning working on the set-up and limited the number of tyres we used.

"The track here improves as the weekend goes on so we chose to do all the Bridgestone Potenza tyre evaluation in the afternoon session. I think we are in a good position and I am looking forward to the rest of the weekend where we should continue to be strong."

Alonso's championship leading teammate Lewis Hamilton was third quickest in the afternoon.

Hamilton, two points ahead of Alonso with seven races remaining, ended the afternoon session with his car stuck in the gravel after spinning off five minutes from the end.

"Today went smoothly, apart from my spin towards the end of the second session, which meant that I missed out on my last run, so maybe I could have gone faster," he said.

"The spin happened as I was catching Yamamoto on a flying lap and I was probably a little too fast going into the corner.

"Despite this we were able to make some positive steps and I am confident with our performance so far at this track."