Alonso cautious about Ferrari's pace

On the back of a difficult Turkish Grand Prix, Ferrari had been expecting an improved showing in Montreal with the track characteristics suiting the F10 better.

But even though Alonso's strong pace in Friday practice appears to point towards Ferrari being able to take the fight to Red Bull Racing and McLaren, Alonso is more cautious about the situation.

"I think it was okay today, a little bit better," said Alonso. "Overall it felt okay with the car, but in Istanbul we were fourth or fifth in Friday practice and in qualifying we were out in Q2. So we need to stay concentrated and to stay focused for tomorrow, because everything can change when everybody goes flat out in qualifying.

"This is only Friday, it is only practice and we need to be using these sessions to try the tyres and work a little bit on the brakes as well. This is a very hard braking circuit so I think we just concentrate on the race situation and we don't pay attention to the times, because we know tomorrow everything can change."

And although tyre graining problems encountered by a number of drivers has pointed towards a challenging weekend, Alonso is confident the tyre situation should improve by Sunday.

"I think tyres here are no surprise," he said. "The super soft is quicker, with better performance and more degradation, but we know on Sunday this normally improves with better track conditions - so I don't expect any big problems on Sunday for anybody."