Fernando Alonso has confirmed he is driving with a minor back injury this weekend but insists the pain is manageable and did not affect him during Friday’s second practice session. The Aston Martin driver is nursing a muscle issue in his lumbar region, which was identified by an MRI scan last week.
“I needed some rest, but the summer break is coming, so it’s another two days of managing the comfort in the seat,” Alonso explained. He acknowledged that while a typical person would rest for two weeks, he is able to compete without pain in the car thanks to modifications made to his seat. “Yesterday, we found different solutions with pads and other things that are working fine, so today, I had no pain in FP2, which is positive.”
After sitting out the first practice session, Alonso returned to the track for FP2 and reported that while the car’s balance was not yet ideal, the session was productive. “There’s a bit of understeer mid-corner, and I struggled to rotate the car on low speed, but that’s normal for a first practice,” he said. “We need to review the data and put together the fastest car for tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, teammate Lance Stroll expressed cautious optimism after finishing fourth in practice, less than a tenth of a second behind Charles Leclerc. “The timesheets on Friday, it’s always hard to know what everyone is doing with fuel loads and all that, but the car felt good and we’ll see what we can do tomorrow,” Stroll commented.
Reserve driver Felipe Drugovich, who filled in for Alonso in FP1, described his outing as a “last-minute” call that left no time for his usual simulator preparation. “I just got given the targets and off we went, and I think it was a pretty good session,” the Brazilian stated. “We got the data done that we needed. I even got a soft tyre run, which is always nice. My lap was a bit messy, full of traffic, and then after I had a massive lock-up into Turn 1… but I needed to try to get some fun out of it.”
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