Alonso: it will be hard to beat Ferrari

"At the moment it is difficult to say, I think they arrive as favourites," said Alonso after Friday's practice sessions, where he was just eighth quickest. "They are still favourites after the Friday session. It is difficult to say if we can beat them.

"At the moment the quick answer is no, but we always work as we did in Turkey, step by step to improve the car slowly, so with a bit of luck in Turkey we did, so why not here again."

Alonso, 12 points in front of Ferrari's Michael Schumacher in the battle for the title, was nearly 1.5 seconds off the German's pace, although both men have downplayed the gap.

"Always on Friday the gap seems bigger," said Alonso. "We look more for the race pace, the right tyre for the race, the right fuel for the race. I think we were in 12th position in Turkey on Friday, and I finished in front of Michael on Sunday.

"The important thing for us is Sunday afternoon and I think the difference will be more or less as we predicted yesterday. We are still a little bit behind them in our calculations but this three or four tenths, maybe we'll find out in qualifying."

The world champion also said after today's sessions that he had no concerns about the performance of his Michelin tyres.
 
"It feels the same as in the test, but in the test the change of the circuit was constant and every day we found different tyres were better than the previous day," he added.

"So the tyres will pick up in the last day of testing. It will be better and better with the weekend going on.

"For Saturday and Sunday we will feel better and better and more comfortable with our tyres. We felt good grip with our car. I am confident, it's easy to drive."