Fernando Alonso has revealed that he has a dinner date.... with the hospital staff who nursed him earlier this year.

The Spaniard, back at the Circuit de Catalunya for the first time since his mysterious crash in pre-season testing, revealed the date at today's press conference.

"The week that I was in the hospital I had one of the best staff I could imagine in the hospital," he told reporters. "They were so kind to me and I plan to have dinner with them, probably on Sunday.

"I stay here on Monday for one event with a sponsor, so Sunday night after all the stress and the race pass; more in a quiet place probably on Sunday I will have dinner with all of them."

Asked if the circuit holds any lingering fears for him, what with the exact cause of the accident still unexplained, he was adamant: "No concerns," he replied. "That was an accident that happened three months ago and unfortunately it was a little bit longer to recover.

"The impact was a little bit unlucky and it put me one month out of the car. But yeah, coming back here with full confidence and full motivation to do well. To perform and to deliver a good result in front of the home crowd."

Sporting a pair of shades - not usually allowed at these press conferences - denied that it was down to a sponsor commitment, rather a stye, a picture of which he posted on Twitter earlier in the week.

"They recommend not to be too much on the artificial light," he said. "I try to protect a little bit the eye today and tomorrow to be ready for Saturday and Sunday."

Asked, following the three-week break, and this being the start of the European season, a time when (traditionally) the updates start coming thick and fast, how important he feels this weekend to be, he replied: "This weekend is important as it was in China and in Bahrain, not so much for the results or the points or the qualifying position; it's more an update on the performance that has to be consistent and has to deliver what we expect from the car.

"That is what happened in China and in Bahrain, that everything we brought to the car delivered as expected. So coming to this weekend, our hope is that everything we bring here keeps going into the car in a healthy way and performing better and then the final result depends on many other factors: luck, the performance of our competitors right now and that's a little bit a second priority right now.

"It's normal that everyone expects much more than what we are doing now but we are in the fifth race, so the championship is long," he added. "We still have high hopes that things will change quickly and we will start performing a little better. On my side, I'm enjoying the challenge a lot. We started at the very bottom and we are climbing the mountain and we are doing it a little bit faster than everyone expected, so this is thanks to all the work that the team is doing and I feel very proud to be here.”

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