Fernando Alonso says he was "surprised" by just ho♛w much grip there was on Friday in opening practice for the inaugural Russian Grand Prix.

Alonso made his usual strong start to the weekend, posting the fourth quickest time in opening practice this morning. He then went third in the afternoon, 0.038 seconds up on Mercedes 𒆙driver Nico Rosberg and only 0.010 seconds off Kevin Magnussen's McLaren ꦕin P2.

Reflecting on the day he said 🐈he felt "comfortable" right from the off and was also very pleased with the turnout at the circuit.

"The tr🐽ack is very unusual and I didn't think that Formula 1 had already got such a large followꦬing here," said the Ferrari pilot.

"Also surp🧸rising today was the good level of grip from the track surface, which is unusual on a brand new circuit. From this point of view, I felt comfortable right from the first lap and that helped a lot when it came to today's most important job, namely learning the track.

"We worked a lot 💟on set-up and found the two compounds had behaved in similar fashion and tyre performance improved as the laps went by.

Meanwhile, he added that his only worry was on the💮 🌟brake front.

"The track is ve💯ry hard on brakes, but that is a specific thing we can work on this evening to be well prepared for qualifying," he explained.