Despite qualifying with only the fourteenth quickest time at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Fernando Alonso was happy with his lap after a troubled day and weekend for the McLaren-Honda team.
The former two-time World Champion was forced to miss most of final practice due to his team changing his engine, and coupled with the problems for his team-mate Jenson Button, he felt it was the best news of the day for the team to qualify where he did.
“I was happy with my lap and I think this is the best qualifying position we could have expected today,” insisted Alonso.
“I expect to be starting 13th, owing to Max’s [Verstappen] likely penalty, so, after a tough day for the team, with my engine change this morning, and me missing most of FP3, and then the disappointment of running only one car in qualifying, I think P13 is the best news of the day.”
Looking ahead to the race, he is hoping he can manage his tyres and run a ‘clever’ strategy to be able to score what would be his first points of 2015, providing the car remains reliable.
“Hopefully tomorrow we can have a much better day, with a smooth race and both cars finishing with no problems,” said Alonso.
“Montreal always seems to provide good races with lots of action, a few Safety Cars, reliability issues for everybody, and so on, since it’s a very demanding circuit on brakes, gearboxes and other components too. You have to stay focused until the very last lap, because anything can happen.
“Our top speed on the straights will be our main concern tomorrow, so we’ll try to do something clever in terms of strategy and tyre management in order to compensate for that and try to get some points.”