Aston Martin confirmed just prior to FP1 that reserve driver Felipe Drugovich would replace Alonso for the opening session to allow the Spaniard more time to rest. Alonso later returned to action in FP2, where he went on to finish fifth fastest, just a tenth behind teammate Lance Stroll.
“It’s the same as yesterday. It’s going to be like this the whole weekend,” Alonso said. “I have a small injury on my muscle on the back in the lumbar area and I needed some rest, but the summer break is coming, so it’s another two days of managing the comfort in the seat.”
He reported a pain-free session in FP2 thanks to adjustments made to his seating position.
“Yesterday, we found different solutions with pads and other things that are working fine, so today, I had no pain in FP2, so that is positive.”
Alonso revealed the injury was confirmed after undergoing scans following the Belgian Grand Prix.
“The thing is that we did an MRI last week just to check properly, and we saw a small injury in the muscle,” he said. “So if you are a normal person, you would sit a little bit for two weeks, but I think it is manageable.
“I don’t have pain in the car, which is the main thing.”
Despite missing the opening session, Alonso said his return to the car felt solid, even as he looked to improve the car’s balance ahead of qualifying.
“Obviously, I missed FP1, but FP2 felt good,” he admitted. “The balance is still not in the window where I would probably like the car to be.
“There’s a bit of understeer mid-corner, and I struggled to rotate the car on low speed, but normal for a first practice of the weekend. Let’s see what we can change overnight.”
Aston Martin showed encouraging pace across Friday, with Stroll finishing fourth and Alonso close behind.
However, Stroll — who also missed a session this season, having sat out the Spanish Grand Prix with a wrist injury — cautioned against reading too much into the order.
“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,” he said. “It felt good today – a good balance.”
Drugovich, who was drafted in on short notice, completed a productive FP1 despite limited preparation.
“I just got given the targets and off we went, and I think it was a pretty good session,” he said. “Everything was quite smooth.
“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 in the second half, which was probably not ideal, but I needed to try to get some fun out of it, so it was all good, no problem with that.”
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