Alonso proud of his fans: 'Our Aston Martin merchandise is very popular'

Carlos Sainz has his own grandstand at the Barcelona circuit. However, every time Fernando Alonso passed this grandstand on Friday during free practice, a huge cheer went up. The two Spaniards can both count on huge fan support during the Spanish Grand Prix, but even along the Sainz stand, Alonso was the recipient of the most cheers.

Alonso did not disappoint the fans. He finished the first day over a tenth of a second behind Max Verstappen in second place. In Barcelona too, the veteran looks set to have a serious chance of a podium finish, although Alonso himself does not want to anticipate that too much. In an Aston Martin afterthought, he said: "It's so close over one lap that I think a couple of tenths will put you in a completely different position in the classification, so we won't read too much into the times [from free practice]."

'Fans were great'

Like almost all teams, Aston Martin also brought upgrades to the Grand Prix. "The upgrades we've introduced are helping the performance of the car and we are happy with them so far, but let’s see where we are tomorrow when everyone is pushing," responded Alonso, who realised how great the support was for him. "A lot of the grandstands are green and our Aston Martin merchandise is very popular. The fans have been amazing and it's great to see their support. Hopefully, we can put on a good show for them tomorrow."

Teammate Lance Stroll did not go beyond 18th place in the second free practice session. The Canadian says it will be better the rest of the weekend. To that end, Saturday morning will be hard work. "That's given us a lot of data to work through tonight and hopefully we can find some more lap time ahead of qualifying as the car wasn't quite where I wanted it. The field was incredibly tight in both sessions, so we know how important it is to find that pace and we'll be working hard to do so," Stroll said.