Fernando Alonso says his back injury is at a manageable level to help him get past the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend and take a break for summer vacation.
Aston Martin announced that Alonso will be sitting in FP1 in Budapest on Friday, with spare driver Felipe Drugvich implanted, and the Spaniard has been treated more for muscle injuries. Alonso returns to the car for FP2 and is fifth fastest with his teammate Lance Stroll, saying he’s just a situation he has to manage all weekend.
“It’s the same as yesterday. It’s going to be like this throughout the weekend,” Alonso said. “I have minor injuries to my back muscles, my lower back muscles, so I need to rest. But with summer vacation coming, I found a variety of solutions yesterday and yesterday with air pads and other things that are working well. Today I had no pain in my FP2.
Alonso says it’s not uncommon for the car to feel uncomfortable, but the injury manifests itself on a medical scan and confirms that he needs to rest when he gets the opportunity.
“There’s always been a small pain and discomfort. I had an MRI last week to properly check and I had a small muscle injury,” he explained. “Obviously, if you’re a normal person, you’ll be sitting for a little over two weeks. But I think it’s easy to manage. I don’t have any pain in the car. This is the most important thing.”
Alonso was encouraged by the Aston Martin form in Hungary on Friday, given the fact that he was in the top five without being completely satisfied with the car.
“I obviously missed FP1, but the FP2 feels good. The balance may not be in the windows I want a car,” he said. “It’s a bit of an understeer mid-corner and I struggle to spin the car at a slower speed. But it’s normal for the first practice on the weekend. Let’s take a look at what we can change overnight and some tests that were done on FP1. You’ll need to check the data tomorrow and put the fastest car.”
He finished FP2 before both Mercedes and Red Bull cars, so it was unclear why it caused the team’s strong performance on Friday.
“I felt good today, I just had a good balance,” Stroll said. “So it’s always hard to know what everyone is doing with Friday timesheets, fuel loads, etc. But yeah, the car feels better, we’re looking at what we can do tomorrow.
