Fernando Alonso didn't have the birthday present he envisioned when he woke up this morning but it wasn't disappointing either. The Spaniard finished the day as second and was only two tenths behind Hamilton. He was happily surprised that his birthday didn't go unnoticed by a special someone: "First of all thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes on my thirtieth, especially to Bernie, who came along to wish me the best along with you journalists during the press meeting! It's nice to celebrate here with Ferrari, a team I will definitely be with at least until I am thirty five..."

Alonso was glad they were able to do a lot of work today: "We finished the planned work programme and that's always a positive start to a race weekend. Now we will analyse all the data gathered and make the best choices for qualifying and the race. I am pleased I was able to do so much running, especially from the point of view of studying the tyre degradation, which at this track is always a significant factor."

The Spaniard thinks that over the course of the weekend the track will dramatically improve session after session: "The track is still very dirty, as is the norm for a Friday at the Hungaroring: however, we know it will improve each day and by Sunday afternoon, it will be much more rubbered in than today. We saw that McLaren looks very strong, as indeed it was last weekend. Now we must try and improve the car, especially in the third sector of the track, where we seem to be suffering more than most."

Last year Alonso qualified 3rd behind Vettel and Webber.