The Alpine driver had a golden opportunity to start from a very advanced position on the grid and has confirmed the predictions, even beating the Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
The qualifying session Belgian Grand Prix it was special as a result of the large number of drivers who faced it with a penalty.
A total of seven pilots, among which were some as relevant as Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Esteban Ocon or Lando Norristhey knew they were going to start the race behind the rest regardless of where they ranked in the standings.
“The car has been going well all weekend and it shouldn’t be bad tomorrow”
This left Carlos Sainz and Checo Pérez as the only candidates for pole position, with Fernando Alonso and the Mercedes as the best positioned for the third position on the grid.
And the Spanish driver has fulfilled his objective, because although he could not be faster than his teammate, he has overtaken the Mercedes and, therefore, his sixth position becomes third for the starting grid on Sunday.
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Esteban Ocon gives slipstream to Fernando Alonso
Alpine knew that Esteban Ocon was going to go to the back of the grid for the penalty, so he devised a strategy whereby the Frenchman could do a fast lap on new tires to try to finish ahead of Lando Norris -also penalized-, but also give Fernando Alonso a slipstream.
And so it was, the Frenchman achieving a very competitive time on his first attempt, with Alonso giving him slipstream. For the second, the tables turned and it was Fernando Alonso who enjoyed the slipstream on the Kemmel line.
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This helped the Asturian to be faster in the first sector, registering a final time of 1:45,368. Enough to beat Lewis Hamilton by just under two tenths, but without being able to improve on the 1: 45.180 of his teammate.
“Very well. We start P3 tomorrow, so we are in momentary podium position, at least in the first few meters”, Fernando Alonso has assessed as soon as he got out of the car. “So very happy with how he’s gone, we’ll see if we can have a smooth race.”
The Spanish rider is aware that it will be difficult to maintain the podium position, since Max Verstappen -who will start 15th- has shown to have a much faster pace to the rest and in Spa-Francorchamps it is easy to overtake.
“The truth is that the car has been going well all weekend and it shouldn’t be bad tomorrow. Probably, we have strong rivals, with Hamilton, with Russell just behind and… especially Verstappenwhich is going to reach us very quickly,” he warns.
“We are aware of this too, with our feet on the ground, but trying to score good points,” he concluded, refusing to feed excessively high expectations for Sunday’s race in Belgium.
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Photos: Alpine F1 Team