Alonso welcomes wet running

The morning session began on a damp track, which allowed the teams to work with intermediate tyres before the circuit dried up completely.

With showers predicted for tomorrow and Sunday, Alonso believes the session could prove useful.

"It was a normal day without any difficulties," said Alonso, sixth fastest in the afternoon. "The rain this morning affected our programme slightly, but it also allowed us to run on a wet track which could turn out to be useful for later in the weekend.

"We must still improve the general balance of the car, but we have already laid the foundations for the weekend."

Teammate Nelsinho Piquet finished down in 15th position, although the Brazilian was pleased with his day's work nonetheless.

"As we drove here last week, we already had a good basis to work from and we have built on that today by driving on a damp track this morning and a dry track in the afternoon," he said.

"We were able to make good progress and have improved the set-up of the car. We will continue to work on this tomorrow morning so that we are ready for qualifying, but we are certainly moving in the right direction."