The Alpine car “seems stronger on the race pace than single laps so that gives us some hopes into tomorrow’s race” - Alonso

Saturday 10 September 2022

F1 | Italian GP | The Alpine car “seems stronger on the race pace than single laps so that gives us some hopes into tomorrow’s race” - Alonso

Fernando Alonso is hopeful for a good race tomorrow, as he starts in provisional sixth place. The Spaniard still felt there was more that could be done in Qualifying today, expecting a P3 for his efforts.

Qualifying in 10th place today at the Monza Circuit, Alonso initially popped his Alpine car into P8. However, after exceeding track limits in Turn 7, the stewards confirmed Alonso didn’t set a time in Q3.

Despite this, Alonso will be in P6 on the grid for tomorrow's Italian GP, because of grid penalties applied to drivers who qualified ahead of him.

Discussing all three Qualifying sessions with selected media including MotorLAT, the two-time World Champion went into detail on tyre management and the lap times from today's session.

“It was not so well executed on my side on the first attempt. I lost a little bit of time in Turn 6 with some oversteer. I lost 3/10s and I felt I will abort it because this tyre could be fitted tomorrow into the race, so I would save the set for the second attempt. Now looking at the times I should finish that lap because obviously that was enough for maybe P8 or P9.

“Then on the second I completed the lap and unfortunately track limits in Turn 7, apparently I was only P8, so a little bit disappointed with the performance that we had this afternoon - only one car in Q3, and that car even out on the track only P8, I think we were expecting a little bit more.”

Alonso felt he could have put the car in P3 for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix:

“Yeah, I think yesterday the car was good. Different to other weekends; it seems stronger on the race pace than single laps, so that gives us some hopes into tomorrow’s race. 

“This morning the car was also good - P5. So as I said, we were thinking into Qualifying, maybe fighting for top six, top seven with both cars. And we are eighth and 11th. Or 10th now with the lap deleted. I don’t know… we need to find some answers.”

After completing FP1 with the Aston Martin team on Friday, the 2019 Formula 2 Champion, Nyck de Vries, jumped straight into the Williams car of Alex Albon for today’s Qualifying session, following Albon’s withdrawal from all duties due to the treatment of appendicitis. De Vries will be provisionally starting tomorrow’s race either on the same row, or just behind Alonso. He responded by saying:

“I think that when you jump into a car and you only have one Free Practice it’s difficult to get up to speed, so yeah, very good day for him and hopefully tomorrow a good race.

“I think it helped him to do FP1 arguably. I think he’s doing good and hopefully tomorrow we can fight as well in the race, not too much, but yes, it’s going to be good fun.”

Notably, there’s new tarmac on the racing line. Alonso was asked if he felt it could affect overtaking opportunities, and if there would be more opportunities going into the corners:

“No, I don’t think so, because we tend not to wait for the very last moment to make the move. So overtaking now, thanks to DRS, is made in the middle of the straight - so [for] 3/4s of the straight it should be no problem.

“It should be possible to follow closer but the DRS affect is also less, and the cars are so close together. Within 4/10s we have 10 or 11 cars. So when you are in a similar pace to the car in front it’s very difficult to pass; you need to create a delta with a different tyre, so let’s see how it goes.”

With the new tyres being more ‘grippy’ and late moves being possible, an amused Alonso concluded, “I think Carlos, Checo and Lewis, they will do a lot of moves tomorrow. So, you will watch and have fun.”