Fernando Alonso is wary of Red Bull Racing’s speed, despite setting the second fastest time in the afternoon’s practice session.
The Spaniard found himself languishing down the order in first practice, only to improve hours later – finishing four tenths off fastest man Mark Webber.
However, the 28-year-old has conceded that Ferrari will need to find even more pace if it wants to fight Red Bull.
“It’s been a pretty good Friday to confirm all the updates that we were bringing, which worked well,” Alonso told Spanish reporters after practice.
“But we know we have to improve the car tonight. It’s not enough at the moment.
“The Red Bull are a lot quicker than us at the moment, so we’ll try to get as close as possible tomorrow to have a good Saturday.”
Alonso is also expecting a fightback from McLaren on Saturday and believes that it would be wrong to write them off.
“No, I think it will be very close tomorrow,” he said. “We saw at Valencia too that McLaren on Friday was far back in the second session and then on Saturday Hamilton was in front of us and Button right behind.
“I think tomorrow will be similar, with three or four teams fighting for positions and let’s hope we are a bit in front of them.”