Fernando Alonso reflected on a missed opportunity for the McLaren-Honda team after grinding to a halt in the pit entry lane during the second part of qualifying, meaning the Spaniard will start the Hungarian Grand Prix from fifteenth on the grid.
Alonso had shown good pace up to then at the Hungaroring, finishing inside the top ten in two of the three practice sessions, but an electrical issue due to a loose harness connection that provides power to the car saw him unable to set a time in Q2.
“This afternoon was a pity, because it’s been a good weekend for the team so far,” said Alonso. “We’d made some useful performance steps, and had regularly been in the top 10 in the sessions, so the problems we had in qualifying were extremely unfortunate.
“Jenson [Button] had a problem in Q1, and then my car just switched itself off in Q2. Unfortunately, we’re not allowed to continue in qualifying if the car doesn’t make it back to the pits under its own power, so that was that.
“Qualifying wasn’t the right time to have these problems, but hopefully we can learn from them for the future.”
