Jerez de la Frontera, 11 February 2010

It was a positive day for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, at work on the second day of the test sessions this week on the "Circuito Permanente de Velocidad" in Jerez, in Andalusia. Fernando Alonso drove a whole 129 laps, the fastest in a time of 1.21.424.

The day’s programme was really intense: a long run of almost 50 laps in the morning, followed by several set up tests during the afternoon. Fernando left the track just after 6pm, when the usual briefing with the technicians had ended.

"We worked on different fronts, trying to understand how the car behaves under different conditions,” Fernando said at the end of the day. “It’s important to find the right compromise for the set up so that everything works well during the qualifying, when the tank is pretty much empty, and in the race, when we’ll start with a full load. We’re really satisfied with what we’ve done during these two days. We’ve driven many kilometres without any reliability problems, which is something that makes me really happy. We put many components under pressure over these five days and we didn’t have any problems at all. Furthermore the car is really easy to drive under all conditions. As far as the tyres are concerned I think that the indications we’ve received these days have to be treated carefully, because the temperatures are very different from the ones we’ll have in Bahrain at the first race. Until now the work we had to do, we’ve done. Next week and even more when we’re in Barcelona, we’ll work on the performance."

Alonso was asked about an article in the Spanish press, which – incorrectly – reprinted some of Felipe’s statements he made in an interview given to a Brazilian website: "I don’t even know what we’re talking about,” Fernando said ironically. "Imagine how much we worry about these things here in our team! I felt immediately at ease here in Ferrari and I’ve been warmly welcomed by everyone. It’s like being at home.”