After having stood out in the first two rounds of qualifying at Suzuka by having come closer than any of the mortals to the top teams, Fernando Alonso ended up missing the moment of truth and asked for water for Sunday.
4th in Q1, 379 thousandths off the fastest; 2nd in Q2, 418 thousandths of a Sergio Pérez who then set the fastest time… and 7th in Q3, tenth and a half behind Esteban Ocon whom he had always kept behind until that crucial point.
Sandwiched between the two Mercedes drivers, Fernando Alonso was the first on the grid to stay more than a second of poleman Max Verstappen, with George Russell less than a tenth immediately behind.
“We had to improvise a bit for the time trial in terms of settings”
Although in Singapore they suffered a severe blow in the struggle they are having in the constructors championship against McLaren by retiring with both cars, while the Woking line-up added 22 points to overtake them in fourth place, Alpine has, at least from the start, a chance to reverse that situation once again.
Despite the setback in Q3 when everything seemed face To be among the fastest of the weekend in qualifying, the Spanish driver of the French team prefers to remain cautious despite not having been able to squeeze his car to the maximum at the moment of truth.
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rain dance
“Well… well, the truth is that having few dry lapsonly in FP3, we had to improvise a bit for the time trial in terms of settings, ”confessed Alonso, somewhat annoyed at seeing himself further back than he would have liked.
“I think it went well in the end, with both cars in Q3. Good position for tomorrow, on the clean side as well. The weather is a bit changeable for tomorrow, so we’ll see how things turn out in the end, ”continued the two-time Asturian champion.
The Alpine A522 He has proven to be up to the task both in the wet conditions with which he started the weekend at Suzuka and in the dry once the rain has left its mark on the Japanese circuit. So… what does Alonso prefer for race day?
“I believe that in the wet we would go a little better, or so it seems… but the best thing would surely be a slightly changeable race, from dry to wet”, he assured, asking for very specific circumstances for Sunday in order to recover lost ground and obtain a good loot of points.
“Seize any opportunity, risk more than the cars in front of uswho are playing for more important things in the championship, so we can risk a little more, hopefully that’s the case, “concluded Alonso.