Spanning the McLaren and Ferrari race machines, Fernando Alonso claimed an impressive third position in Q3 in Shanghai, trailing only Red Bull’s frontrunners Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. Yet, Alonso confessed he had contemplated canceling his ultimate circuit after he slipped through the complex starting series of the Shanghai circuit, costing him precious split seconds.
“In sector one I had a moment in Turn 1 and 2 and I nearly lost the car,” Alonso shared about his wavering moment. “And then I asked myself, should I keep going or abort the lap? Given the fact that I had lost about two tenths in two corners. Nonetheless, we did not yield. We pressed on throughout the lap and recorded a decent lap time.”
The Spanish racer went on to mention how his Aston Martin team had leveraged the re-opening of parc ferme, a fresh feature on the revised sprint weekend format, executing additional car adjustments he anticipates will be beneficial in Sunday’s Grand Prix. However, he also accepted the capricious nature of the track conditions, connoting that some of those configuration tweaks are a gamble for the team.
“I think the car did improve since this morning, we implemented a few set-up changes. Let’s see if we can convert that into notable points tomorrow,” he elaborated.
“You cannot completely alter the car as you are in synchronous with the race weekend rhythm, nevertheless, you can still make some minor setup changes. Some are for balance issues and others, pure speculations in anticipation of tomorrow’s race, like flipping a coin. We won’t have clarity until tomorrow afternoon, but I’m extremely overjoyed and proud of my team. Even though we haven’t reached where we want to be, we continue to push.”
Alonso was in the run to grab a top-three result in Saturday morning’s sprint but had to withdraw following a puncture incurred whilst in combat with Ferrari‘s Carlos Sainz. This mishap resulted in a 10-second post-race penalty for him, regardless of his premature exit from the sprint.