Alonso staying grounded in Montreal

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso has played down his team's chances ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday.

The Italian outfit looked sharp in practice on Friday, with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton finishing the fastest over the two sessions with an impressive display. Ferrari have come on leaps and bounds in recent weeks and, having endured a torrid Formula One campaign in 2011, they appear to be well in the mix for the championship this season. Despite the promising signs, Alonso has cooled talk of his side's chances ahead of the race in Montreal this weekend, as he goes in search of his second win of the year. He said: "This morning, we concentrated mainly on evaluating some new updates, while in the afternoon, we worked principally on a comparison of the two types of tyre, looking for performance over a single lap and also to check the behaviour of the car with a lot of fuel on board. "The first indications seem to be positive, but it is much too soon to draw any conclusions as Friday times should never be taken at face value."