Fernando Alonso was left wishing he’d capitalised on a poor qualifying session for the Red Bull drivers after taking seventh on the grid for today’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, who have won every race between them so far this year, failed to reach Q3 and qualified only 11th and 13th respectively.Alonso took seventh on the grid but regretted not qualifying higher. “It was tricky for us the whole day,” he said. “In FP3 we were not competitive and then in qualifying we made some set-up changes.
“The car did improve, but only for P7. When the Red Bulls are not dominating it feels like you are losing an opportunity to be in that position.”
He said the team expected to be more competitive in Singapore before the event began but doesn’t believe he could have qualified much higher than he did.
“We thought that Singapore could fit our package and our car,” Alonso added. “But after FP1, FP2, FP3 I think we went into qualifying knowing that Q3 maybe was already a difficult task, to be in the top ten.
“In the end, P7 feels okay the lap in Q3 was very good, one of the best laps of qualifying of this year in my opinion. So, nothing more today on the car.”
Red Bull’s dominant start to the season prompted speculation they could become the first team in Formula 1 history to win every round of a championship. Alonso said their poor start to the weekend was a reminder how difficult it is to be consistently successful in F1.
“It’s a good point, probably, yeah for the people outside, that sometimes we forget how difficult it is to succeed weekend after weekend,” he said. “They’ve been outstanding for the whole year, and sometimes also we forget the driver or the car is just not a superhero.
“Things can change very quickly, he’s still the best on the grid maybe but he will start P11 tomorrow. So, you need the car always to win.”
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2023 Singapore Grand Prix
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bosyber (@bosyber)
17th September 2023, 7:35
Thanks, after Q2 I wondered what happened to Alonso, but not having had time to follow every session this time I had missed that AM also weren’t doing great over the weekend either.
David BR (@david-br)
17th September 2023, 11:18
Or as Jody Scheckter put it: “Alonso, overrated.”
I realize that’s throwing a lit match into a fireworks factory. Thought it was funny though with maybe a little element of truth. But then if you compare his performance to Lance Stroll’s, the quality gap is simply immense. So maybe not. One for the ages.
az
17th September 2023, 12:54
“Q3 was very good, one of the best laps of qualifying of this year in my opinion. So, nothing more today on the car” but his “ultimate lap” says differently. I’ve also noticed that the lap improvement from Q2 to Q3 is always lower than that of other drivers.