Horner: Aston Martin are 'dark horse' – as Red Bull chief lavishes praise on Alonso

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has branded Aston Martin as F1's "dark horse" for the coming season.

Aston Martin caused a stir during pre-season when rumours of impressive wind tunnel numbers began to emerge.

The reported pace was then shown to be real during pre-season testing and again, on Friday, in the opening practice session of the year in Bahrain when Alonso split the two Red Bull drivers to end the hour second fastest.

Speaking ahead of the evening's second session, Horner said of Aston Martin: “Their car looks great.

"They had some really impressive race runs last week. Fernando looks – I don’t know what he’s taking, but he’s looking great on it – he looks on fire.

“I think they could be a real surprise this year. They’re really a bit of a dark horse."

READ MORE: Brundle warns Ferrari of FIA inquest over major rear wing issue

Aston Martin show what's possible

Aston Martin ended last season seventh in the constructors' standings but this we not entirely reflective of the team's season.

After a slow start, the Silverstone-based team introduced a radical upgrade package in Spain and pushed forward to become regular points scorers.

Using Aston Martin as an example for other midfield-running outfits, Horner added: "It just shows that it is possible to take a jump from the midfield to potentially further up.

“But, of course, we’ve only had small snapshot, let’s see the long runs this afternoon, then qualifying, then the first sample in the race on Sunday.”

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