“If that happened in Barcelona or Monaco” – Alpine star Fernando Alonso is looking to build on his points at Portimao by doing well in the upcoming Barcelona and Monaco qualifying on Saturday.
Double-time champion Fernando Alonso hasn’t had the best of return to Formula 1, as he gets to grip with the Alpine car. The Spaniard did well at Portimao to ensure a double points finish for the team, and is now looking to improve his qualifying performances, starting with Barcelona and Monaco.
Alonso qualified on his F1 return in Bahrain, before missing out on Q3 at Imola to line up 15th. At Portimao, he only managed P13 in Saturday qualifying.
“I need to get better and more comfortable with the car, especially in qualifying. We had a good car [in Portugal] and I didn’t perform on Saturday. If that happened in Barcelona or Monaco my weekend is very compromised.
“I cannot afford that and I will try to be more prepared next time because the race is a bit harder to overtake than in Portimão. It’s not [about] extracting the maximum from the one-lap tyre because in FP2 or FP3 you put the soft and you do one lap. The timed lap performance was there, it’s more about the changeable conditions in quali.
“If there is less grip or more grip, if it is windier, whatever changes on track, I need to be ready and understand it quickly on the out lap. I don’t have time to do more laps so they are things that I need to speed up.”
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