Fernando Alonso took to Le Mans’ Circuit de la Sarthe like a duck to water after topping the timesheets in the official test ahead of the 24-hour race later this month.
The Spaniard is combining his Formula 1 duties at McLaren with a seat at Toyota for the WEC super-season and made a winning start on debut at Spa ahead of what is his main focus, adding a Le Mans win to his resume and complete two legs of motorsport’s Triple Crown.
On his first day of driving around the iconic circuit in Northern France, Alonso wouldn’t hang around setting a best of 3m19.066s to finish six-tenths up on the next best LMP1 car and was clearly enjoying himself in the process.
“It was a very good day for us as a team,” said the 36-year-old. “We obviously prepared this test in the best way possible before the big race (16/17 June). The car felt good from the first lap and everyone was happy straight away.
“Then it was about getting familiar with the circuit; I have been in the simulator and studied onboard laps from previous years but it’s always different on the real track which feels perfect for these cars. It was an interesting day and a lot of fun.”
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Meanwhile, back at McLaren, with rumours of an IndyCar team with Alonso at the helm in 2019 continuing, CEO Zak Brown has revealed no talks will take place with the double world champion about his F1 future until the summer.
“I think our situation is the same as everyone’s, it’s a little early in the season,” he was quoted by PlanetF1.
“Of course, we’re all talking to our drivers, probably talking to each other’s drivers to a certain extent up and down the pit lane.
“I think that we’re now back in Europe, it’s usually around the summertime that things start really taking shape as far as our conversations with Fernando.
“Just like last year, we decided to wait until about the summer time and I think Fernando will let us know what he wants to do here pretty soon.”
