Alonso says muscle injury manageable until summer break

Fernando Alonso says his back injury is at a manageable level for him to get through the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend and rest during the summer break.

Aston Martin announced Alonso would sit out FP1 in Budapest on Friday, with reserve driver Felipe Drugovich filling in while the Spaniard received more treatment on a muscular injury. Alonso returned to the car for FP2 and was fifth fastest behind teammate Lance Stroll, and says it’s just a situation he has to manage through the weekend.

“It’s the same as yesterday – it’s going to be like this the whole weekend,” Alonso said. “I have a small injury on my muscle on the back, in the lumbar area, so I need some rest. But the summer break is coming, so it’s another two days of managing the comfort in the seat. We found different solutions yesterday with air pads and other things which are working fine – today I had no pain in FP2, so that’s positive.”

While Alonso says it’s not unusual to have some discomfort in the car, the injury showed up in a medical scan and confirmed he’d need to take time to rest when he gets the opportunity.

“Always you have small pain and discomfort here and there. The thing is that we did the MRI last week just to check properly and we saw a small injury on the muscle," he explained. "Obviously, if you are a normal person, you will sit a little bit for two weeks. But I think it is manageable. I don't have pain in the car, which is the most important thing.”

Alonso was encouraged by Aston Martin’s form in Hungary on Friday, given the fact he was in the top five without being totally happy with his car.

“Obviously I missed FP1, but FP2 felt good. The balance is still maybe not in the window where probably I would like the car to be," he said. "A little bit of understeer mid-corner and struggling to rotate the car on the slow speed. But normal for a first practice of the weekend. Let's see what we can change overnight and also a couple of tests that the guys did in FP1. We need to review the data and put the fastest car tomorrow.”

Stroll wasn’t sure what caused the team's strong performance on Friday, as he ended FP2 in fourth place and ahead of both Mercedes and Red Bull cars.

“I felt good today, just good balance,” Stroll said. “I mean, timesheets on Friday, it's always hard to know what everyone's doing with fuel loads and all that. But, yeah, the car felt good. We'll see what we can do tomorrow. It just felt like the car was behaving well today.”