Fernando Alonso says he can cope with the pain from his injured ribs after returning to action for the first time since his Australian Grand Prix crash.
Alonso completed a total of 42 laps in practice on Friday – 14 shy of a race distance at the Shanghai International Circuit – and said he was pleased with how it went.
“I felt good,” Alonso told reporters. “Obviously I miss a lot the feeling of being in the car. Even if we are not super competitive I love what I do and I love to be in the car, racing.”
“A little bit of pain, no surprises there. The rib is still a little bit fractured so that’s normal. And also it’s a circuit that has a very long corners, right corners, that’s not a good combination.”
“It’s manageable, the pain, there is no other risk this time to be on the car so that’s the positive thing.”
Between the two sessions the FIA announced Alonso had been declared fit to compete in the rest of the race weekend. With rain expected tomorrow, Alonso said it was useful to take advantage of today’s dry running.
“It was important to be in the car today and put in a little bit of laps because tomorrow we have some rain forecast for qualifying so today was the only opportunity to test the dry tyres for the race for Sunday,” he said.
“We are happy with the results, we need to find a little bit more performance in the car because I think we can be a little bit more competitive compared with what we saw today and we need to work on that tonight.”
bukester (@bukester)
15th April 2016, 12:07
Hopefully Fred will be good for the race.
Todfod (@todfod)
15th April 2016, 15:41
Tomorrow the Merc and Ferrari engines will be cranked up a notch for quali. There is no way Mclaren can get any more competitive than P12 if you ask me.
Lewisham Milton
15th April 2016, 15:49
McLaren has flown several members of its Rib Pain Management Team to China to be with Fernando this weekend.
lockup (@)
15th April 2016, 18:16
I’d be happier if he listened to what the pain is trying to tell him. I guess he’ll be fine, as long as he doesn’t have an impact.
Cyber
16th April 2016, 10:38
Agreed. Any even just modest impact can quickly result in a much more complicated situation and prolonged recovery for Alonso. Most worrying part is if his lung collapses more profoundly, as some functionality/capacity may never come back.