Alonso says McLaren closer to Ferrari

Alonso, winner of the Malaysian Grand Prix last Sunday, had insisted ahead of the Sakhir race that his team still needed to work to catch their Italian rivals.

And although Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen dominated today's practice sessions in Bahrain, Alonso believes McLaren are actually closer in terms of race pace.

"Two trouble-free practice sessions where we made positive progress," said Alonso, fifth fastest today. ""The track was very dirty and continued to improve throughout the session. We spent our time perfecting the set-up and evaluating the tyres.

"I completed some long runs and all in all I think we are closer to the Ferraris than we have been so far this season on a Friday but it's a long weekend so we will see what happens."

Teammate Lewis Hamilton, second fastest, also feels his car was more consistent over long runs, leaving him upbeat for the rest of the weekend.

"It has been a positive session today," said Hamilton. "In the first practice the track was very dirty and slippery so there was no point spending too much time looking at the set-up. In the second session we began our fine tuning and completed a couple of long runs.

"I think I was quicker and more consistent than previously in the long runs which is positive and there is definitely more to come. We now have quite a bit of data to look at but so far so good."