Alonso finally finds reason for optimism after Aston Martin's Hungary upgrades

The two-time world champion flirted with the top 10 in the opening session before slipping to 19th in the afternoon, finishing three seconds adrift of pace-setter Lewis Hamilton as Ferrari looked comfortably ahead of the rest of the field.

Aston Martin rolled out one of its biggest upgrade packages of the season for the Hungarian Grand Prix, with sweeping changes made to the AMR26. The update covered almost every major area of the car, including the front wing, floor, diffuser, sidepods, engine cover, cooling layout, rear suspension and rear wing, as the team looks to unlock more performance.

Alonso described the initial feedback from Aston Martin's latest upgrade package as encouraging, revealing the data matched the team's expectations and provided a positive indication for both future developments this season and next year's car. While stressing there is still plenty of ground to make up, he viewed the update as an important first step in the right direction.

Asked whether the vibration issues that have affected Aston Martin throughout the season were finally behind them, Alonso explained the team experienced them again during FP1 but managed to largely resolve them before FP2, with no concerns heading into Saturday: "Today we had some vibrations on the main straight, especially in FP1. I think the guys fixed it more or less for FP2. There are no concerns for tomorrow."

Alonso believes Aston Martin is no longer carrying a significant deficit through the corners compared to the front of the midfield, although he stressed further analysis is still needed. He feels the team is moving in the right direction, while acknowledging there is still work to do on both the chassis and power unit. Even so, the Spaniard welcomed the fact that the latest upgrade package is delivering the results the team expected, describing it as an encouraging sign for the future.