Alonso Enjoys Istanbul Circuit

Alonso, chasing his seventh win of a season that could crown him the youngest champion in Formula One history, was seventh in both sessions after doing a total of 38 laps around the new track.

Despite being well off the pace of rivals McLarens, the Spanish driver was pleased with his day's work.

"My first impression is that the track is a really good challenge," said the Spaniard. "It is quite hard to find the right line through the corners and it is not easy to learn.

"I felt very comfortable out there, and really enjoyed the sessions today: the circuit is challenging, with blind entries to corners at turns 1 and 3, plus a really unusual, difficult corner at Turn 8, which is different to any other track.

"The car felt quite good today, with a nice balance but like everybody else, we were lacking some overall grip on the new, dirty surface. Even so, I am quite pleased with our work today."

Teammate Giancarlo Fisichella also relished driving at the Turkish circuit, the Italian finishing the day as eighth fastest.

"I didn't do as much running as I would have liked this morning, but we made up for it in the second session with lots of laps," said Fisichella.

"My first impression is that the track is a really good challenge - it is quite hard to find the right line through the corners, and it is not easy to learn; in fact the only thing I might change would be the last three corners, which are too slow.

"This is place where you need to feel really confident with the car to push, and I could only do that properly this afternoon - but the balance felt quite stable when I did, and the lap-times were OK, so I think we are in a good position so far."