Alonso realistic despite strong start

The Renault driver, who has scored just five points in the first four races, finished as third quickest in the afternoon practice session.

The local hero said things had been much better in the second session after struggling for grip in the morning.

Despite that, Alonso was refusing the get carried away.

"The practice sessions were interesting because we had to evaluate some new parts that we have introduced to the car this weekend," said Alonso.

"In the first session we were struggling a little bit as we didn't have much grip, but for the afternoon we found something which took us in a good direction and improved the lap times.

"We obviously need to remain realistic about tomorrow as this is only Friday, but we are reasonably confident that we can have a good qualifying session. The target for Sunday remains the same: to score as many points as possible."

Team-mate Nelson Piquet also showed promising form with the eighth quickest time, although the Brazilian said he was not happy with his car.

"It was a fairly typical day of practice as we began evaluating the new developments on the car and assessing the tyres," Piquet said.

"I'm still not happy with the set-up of the car and so the priority tomorrow morning is to work on that so that we can approach qualifying in good shape and hopefully get the car into the top 10."