After the sprint, Fernando Alonso said he was a little pessimistic about the performance of the AMR24 in qualifying, underlining that the good second row on Friday was potentially linked more to the rain than to the intrinsic potential of the car. However, the second qualifying of the weekend told a different story to expectations, with Aston Martin able to place one of the two cars in third position again.
The almost five tenths charged by poleman Max Verstappen are almost relative, because in fact the target of the British team is not to compete with the reigning world champion, at least at the moment, but rather to make the difference over the other chasing teams. During this first part of the year, Aston Martin has shown a certain tendency to perform well in qualifying and then suffer in the race, as was also seen in the morning during the sprint race.
However, for now, Alonso is enjoying the result and, at the end of qualifying, he revealed that he was almost on the verge of abandoning the lap which then took him to third place after a first sector in which he was unable to improve.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
“In the first sector I had a moment of difficulty in turns 1 and 2 and I risked losing the car. And then I said: 'Ok, do I continue or stop the lap? Because I lost about two tenths in two corners'. But I didn't we gave up, kept pushing the whole lap and got a good lap time.”
The Spaniard said his Aston Martin had taken advantage of the reopening of Parc Fermé, a novelty of the new sprint weekend format, to make further changes to the car which he hopes to be able to exploit in Sunday's Grand Prix. However, today's low temperatures, more than ten degrees lower than, for example, in FP1, according to the Spaniard, worked in his favour, accelerating the heating process of the tyres.
“I think the car has improved compared to this morning, we've made some changes to the set-up. We'll see tomorrow if we can translate all this into points. We can't change the car completely because we've entered the rhythm of the weekend, but we can still make some changes. make small changes to the setup.”
“Some of these are just for balance problems, but others are just assumptions that are made for tomorrow's race and we take stock. We won't know the answer until tomorrow afternoon, but I'm extremely happy and proud of the team. We do not Surrend. We're not in the position we want yet, but we keep pushing.”
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
“It's an incredible result and honestly, looking at what happened this morning, we didn't think we could finish so high” – added Team Principal Mike Krack -. “After the third corner [nel giro di Fernando Alonso in Q3] I didn't think it could be improved and when he crossed the finish line I was surprised that he finished third! However, if you finish third it's because you deserve it, it shows why we wanted to renew with Fernando and also that we are going in the right direction with the car.”
The hope for tomorrow is also to have a more linear race, considering that this morning he had to retire due to a contact with Carlos Sainz. In fact, during the duel with his compatriot from Ferrari, the two touched: Sainz paid with damage to the floor and dirty tyres, while Alonso suffered a puncture which forced him to return to the pits, effectively putting the word end of his race.
The incident earned him a bizarre 10-second post-race penalty and 3-point penalty to Aston Martin's two-time world champion, despite him having already retired, effectively rendering it pointless. It is no coincidence that the FIA commissioners themselves suggested that the FIA change the regulations to manage situations of this type.
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