An ear infection has forced Spanish hero Fernando Alonso to cut short his Friday morning practice for this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.
The double world champion did only a few laps this morning and responsibilities then fell to team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr.
“We tried not to do too many laps today as I wasn’t feeling one hundred percent,” Alonso is quoted as saying by itv-f1.com.
The Asturian racer pointed to the physical difficulties of the Malaysian environment, which could have been a contributing factor to his infection.
“It’s a very demanding weekend in terms of the heat because we sweat so much,” he said. The Malaysian event is notorious for its high level of humidity.
He went on to say that he was feeling optimistic that it wouldn’t affect qualifying and the race.
”Hopefully I will recover more this evening and feel better tomorrow so that I can give my maximum in qualifying, which I think will be one of the most important parts of this weekend, so we need to be ready for that.”
