Fernando Alonso delivers first verdict on Aston Martin…

Aston Martin seems to be happy with the performance of the upgraded AMR26, which the team brought to Hungary. Although Lance Stroll endured another difficult day, with a suspension failure not only costing him time in FP1 but also ruling him out of FP2 - as the team couldn't repair the car in time - Fernando Alonso was left satisfied with his first day behind the wheel of what many are calling the B-spec Aston Martin.

The Spaniard ended up 13th in the first practice session and then 19th in the second, with the gap to the opposition being clearly smaller. There's potentially more time to unlock as the team continues to learn its new package - but, according to the two-time F1 world champion, the first signs are encouraging.

"Yeah, it felt good," he declared after FP2. "I think in general we had what we expected in terms of numbers and correlation, which is obviously very encouraging for the future as well, for next year's car and the future upgrades this year.

"So yeah, still a long way to go for us, obviously starting so far behind, but this is the first step, hopefully, of good ones coming."

With Honda expected to deliver its upgraded power unit at Zandvoort after the summer break, Alonso stressed the objective for Aston Martin was to see if it could match its competitors in the corners.

Plus, as team boss and technical guru Adrian Newey revealed earlier on Friday, the package his team brought to Hungary is only a first step - with new parts expected at Zandvoort and then also in Baku.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing (Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images)

"Obviously we need to study the data more and see a little bit of the overlays," Alonso noted. "But I don't think there are any big surprises there or any big deficit in the corners now to the top of the midfield, which is obviously the first of our ambitions - to be at the top of the midfield.

"And I think in the corners we are matching that kind of pace, so we just need to keep up the work. Obviously there are still some steps to go on the chassis side and some steps to go on the engine side as well. So, as I said, this is the first of many, but I think there is a positive atmosphere in the team, knowing that we delivered what we expected."

During FP1 it was evident, though, that some of the unwelcome issues from earlier in the season had manifested themselves again in the form of vibrations, but Alonso said the team got them under control later in the day.

"Yeah, today we had some vibrations on the main straight, especially in FP1," he said. "I think the guys fixed it more or less for FP2, so yeah, there are no concerns for tomorrow."

Whether Aston Martin can now fight for Q2 is still a big question - but after spending much of the season behind Cadillac, it at least seems to have closed that gap, if not moved ahead.

"They are definitely in the fight," Sergio Perez said on Friday evening. "They've been very strong today. The race pace looked also very strong, so I think they will be hard to beat this weekend."