Returning from a two-year hiatus from F1 this seaso🧔n, the double world champion admitted he was short of being at “100%” at the opening two races in Bahrain andꦿ Imola.

Alonso enjoyed an encouraging day of practice at Portimao and was fifth-fastest in the FP2 timesꦆheets, just ahead of Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon and within 0.4s of Lewis Hamilton’s benchmark.

“It was a good practice day for me and the most comfortable I’ve had t🎃his season compared to Bahrain and Imola,” Alons🅘o said.

I was happy with the setup of the car quite early in the day, so I concentrated mostly on becoming more acc♐limatised to the circuit and then evaluating the tyres over the two sessions. There is still lots of data for us to analyse, but it’s a good start to the weekend.

“I enjoyed driving the circuit for the fꦿirst time in a F🐼ormula 1 session, but I think traffic could be a challenge tomorrow in qualifying. It’s an exciting track to drive, that’s for sure.”

Despite Alpine’s strong pace catching the attention of ✱McLaren driver🍃 Lando Norris, Alpine racing director David𝓰e Brivio stressed the French squad will not be focusing too much on the timesheets at this stage of the weekend.

“I think it was a good day for the t﷽eam today,” he said. “It is ju꧟st Friday, though, and we won’t be looking too much into the timesheets.

“We were able to test a few things on ꧅each car in the morning, and then we completed our usual long runs in the second session on each tyre to collect data and information foꦯr the race.

“The drivers did a good job; it’s Fernando’s first time here in a Formula 1 car, so he was getting used to the track a little bit♔ and Esteban ran very consistently in both sessions.

“It’s a positive start to the weekend, we’ll ke🎶ep working hard and see how the next two days unfold.”