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Alonso Happy with First Test in Barcelona, Despite Problems

Although Ferrari experienced some electronic problems with their F10 on Thursday, Fernando Alonso insisted he wasn't disappointed with yesterday's mileage or lap times on the Circuit de Catalunya of Barcelona.

The Prancing Horse debuted their newly-developed 283 chassis for this week's test yesterday, but after less than 15 laps the Spaniard had to return to the garage for some minor repairs. That cost him a couple of hours of inactivity on the Spanish circuit, as he eventually finished the day with only 74 laps under his belt (whereas some of the yesterday runners surpassed the 100-lap mark).

It wasn’t a perfect day, but it was very helpful nevertheless. We had several new things in the car and we collected some data to see how they work. Now we’ve got to understand how to exploit them,” said Alonso at the end of the day, after stopping the clock at 1.24.170 (almost 3 seconds off pace from Red Bull's Mark Webber).

What Alonso was unhappy with was the Barcelona track, which apparently wasn't as clean as expected. Nevertheless, being that this is the only test of the off-season that is ran on an F1 Grand Prix hosting venue, the Ferrari-an emphasized the importance of data collection for his team.

The track wasn’t great today. A little dirty and wind. It’s always interesting to drive on a circuit, where you’ll also have a Grand Prix, because you start seeing some aspects you’ll have to deal with later on. All in all I’d say it was a good day,” added Alonso.

The Spaniard is due to take the F10 to the track today also, before handing the 283 chassis to teammate Felipe Massa for the last 2 test days of the winter, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
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