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Grand Prix Weekend in Malaysia kicks off with Fernando Alonso declaring: ‘This weekend is a real test for Ferrari’
When Fernando Alonso drove his Ferrari to victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix last year, little did he know that he would have a Lotus and a Mercedes to contend with, making his job that little bit trickier this season. Frequently coined as the most boring grand prix on the Formula One race calendar, the double world champion aims to win again at one of Ferrari's strongest circuits.
And with Red Bull's Mark Webber setting the fastest lap in the first practice session of the weekend, Fernando Alonso has his work cut out, having finished fourth behind the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel and Australian Grand Prix winner Kimi Raikkonen, who came a close second.
"In Australia, everything went fine for us and we showed we have a good potential," Alonso said. "It's true that the Australian circuit is strange and unusual. That means that this weekend we will be looking for a little bit of confirmation that the car is performing well. After experiencing positive feelings in winter testing and then in Australia, this weekend is a very real test for us. We want a clean weekend and hopefully a podium will again be a very good target for us and if we manage it, we can be very happy."
With critics hailing Lotus and saying Kimi Raikkonen can win the world championship, Alonso laughed at the thought, saying it is was too early to predict an outright winner.
"The pace of the Lotus was very good, but it was not something we could not do, it was not out of our reach," the Spanish racing driver explained. "They had a very clean race with no traffic, so I think we can fight a bit closer to them."
With British drivers rumoured to be suffering from the sweltering heat in Australia and the horrendous humidity in Malaysia, Alonso, who hails from Oviedo where the average August high is 22.8 degrees Celsius, does not let the extreme climate affect him.
"It's not a big difference in this heat and humidity, because for us [drivers] in the car it does not feel too much hotter. Whether it's in Melbourne at 26 degrees or here at 32, when you are driving at 300 kilometres per hour, the air coming in the cockpit is not too bad. You don't feel the heat so much. In fact, it's more of a problem when you stop in the garage because of all the heat soaking into the car."
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