Today was a very unusual day in Shanghai, with a heavily disrupted first session owing to mist and intermittent showers, which meant the medical helicopter was grounded, unable to operate its usual service in the event of an incident.
Both McLaren Honda drivers completed only one installation lap followed by one short run each – Fernando four laps on intermediates, and Stoffel three laps on wets, but neither was able to commit to any conclusive running.
It's good to see the fans in the grandstands and how much they enjoy Formula 1, but it's a shame that we didn't put any laps in for them in FP2, and very few in FP1,” Alonso said. “Hopefully we can give them a good show tomorrow and Sunday. I know this track well, I know the tyres, I know the car, so I don't mind going straight into qualifying. Should we need wet tyres or dry tyres, I have all the data on my hard disk already!”
The team will return to the track tomorrow morning in an effort to recoup the lost running time, in advance of qualifying in the afternoon.
