Alonso not worried about engine reliability

Fernando Alonso insists that he is not concerned about the reliability of Honda's powerplants ahead of this weekend's Indianapolis 500, despite James Hinchcliffe suffering an engine failure during practice on Carb Day.

Hinchcliffe's blowup followed a string of similar failures during May, and further fuels concerns about whether Sunday's race could develop into a battle of attrition. Honda has indicated that some of those engine failures stem from an identical problem that can't be immediately solved, but nevertheless, Alonso remains confident of a trouble-free race.

"As long as [the problem is] in practice, it's OK," he said. "If you put it in another way, if the practice today was 10 minutes shorter, that [failure] could happen on the parade lap. So I think it's a good thing that these things happen in practice. We can make sure that we learn, and we save engines for the race. So no concerns, not thinking [about] that problem, and I'm 100 percent [sure] will be OK."

The Spaniard was also encouraged by his own performance during Friday's final hour of practice, suggesting that his car felt better than it has at any other point during the Month of May.

"The car felt the best so far in the last two weeks," he said. "I was there making some moves, some different lines, just to try what I saw from different years. I also did [time] in the simulator in the last two or three days.

"We had some yellow flags; we had some laps to test different things on the car. And even very normal things that for everyone else will be straightforward. I don't know where... if we change something on the car, where to find it on the steering wheel, and things like that. So simple things that, I am still running behind a little bit, but today I think we put all the ticks in all the boxes, and I am extremely happy."