Alonso Quickest in European Grand Prix Practice

Racing on home soil, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso set fast time at Friday second practice session for this weekend’s European Grand Prix. The two-time world champion completed the street course in Valencia at 1:39.283, giving him the edge by just 0.056 seconds over Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull. It was a pleasing practice session for Red Bull, who had limited expectations coming into the weekend, as they had two of the three best times with Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber coming in third.

Having a worse practice session was Alonso’s teammate Felipe Massa, who spun out in Turn Four during the practice session and was forced to miss a half hour of track time after his car stalled and needed to be towed back to the pits. Massa wound up with the seventh fastest time in practice.

Concerns about the tire situation coming into the weekend based on the situation in Canada last race continued during the practice session. However, Bridgestone’s director of competition said that early practice results have shown that the tires are holding together well at the relatively low-speed street course and that there should be little reason for concern on race day.

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