Fernando Alonso says he almost spun on his final lap in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix that secured him third on the grid.
The Aston Martin driver will line up behind the two Red Bulls for Sunday’s grand prix after out-qualifying both McLarens and Ferraris.Despite his strong result, Alonso admitted that he almost lost control of his car through the long right hand first corner and could have been even closer to the Red Bulls.
“In sector one, I had a moment in turns one and two – I nearly lost the car,” he explained. “Then I said, ‘okay, I either keep going or I abort the lap’, because I lost like two tenths in two corners.
“But we didn’t give up, we kept pushing all through the lap and we set a good lap time. I think the car did improve since this morning. We made a few set-up changes. Let’s see tomorrow if we can translate that into more points.”
Alonso says his team made slight adjustments to his car’s set-up when parc ferme restrictions were lifted between the sprint race and the start of grand prix qualifying.
“I think it’s the same for everybody – you cannot change the car completely, because you are into the rhythm of the weekend, but you can still make some small set-up changes,” he explained.
“Some of them are just for balance problems, but some of them are just guesses that you do into tomorrow’s race – you flip the coin. So I think until tomorrow afternoon, we will not know the answer. But I’m extremely happy, proud of the team. We are not giving up. We are not in the position we want yet, but we’ll keep pushing.”
Alonso’s Aston Martin team have protested the results of qualifying after Carlos Sainz Jnr triggered a red flag after a crash in Q2 but resumed in the session despite being deemed to have stopped on track, seemingly in breach of regulations. While Alonso would not benefit from any penalty to Sainz, his team mate Lance Stroll missed out on Q3 in 11th place after Sainz rejoined the session following the red flag delay.
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Yellow Baron
20th April 2024, 16:01
Another human error, 10 second penalty for a retired Fernando alonso instead of the common sense move of a grid penalty for the GP. FIA operating without nonsense just doesn’t happen
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
20th April 2024, 23:38
That’s true, not that I have any complaints cause alonso ahead on the grid is good for the sport, but it’s indeed embarrassing to give time penalties that stay as such to people who retired from the race!