Fernando Alonso will start the Styrian Grand Prix from ninth place in what was a very mixed qualifying for the Alpine F1 Team, with Frenchman Esteban Ocon failing to get out of qualifying one.
For Alonso it was a solid qualifying, the experienced Spaniard used all his ability to qualify ninth around the short Red Bull Ring, where times are incredibly close. With qualifying in the top ten Alonso has every opportunity to finish in the points on Sunday, where the forecast remains unpredictable!
“It was a stressful qualifying with no room for mistakes, thanks to the close gaps and track limits at the last two corners. There is always room to improve but I am very happy with getting into the top ten again and finishing ninth. It gives us the possibility to score some good points tomorrow. Our forecast suggests it might rain so it is a little bit unknown heading into the race, but we are ready for whatever conditions.”
“We’re not happy today” – Esteban Ocon
For Esteban Ocon it was one of his worst qualifying sessions in his Formula 1 career so far, the Frenchman will start the race from seventeenth place leaving him with a lot of work to do.
Ocon is aware that he should not be getting eliminated from the first qualifying session and will therefore analyse what went wrong. Ocon who has recently signed a contract extension with the team, will need to find answers quickly to give him any hope of a point on Sunday.
“We’re not happy with today and exiting qualifying in Q1 is not where we should be. We need to regroup, keep analysing and see what’s going on to improve our performance as it was not enough today. It’s been a difficult weekend so far, but we gave it our maximum on both push laps. The lap-time just wasn’t there and that’s something we need to understand. We race tomorrow and we will give it our best and see what we can do.”
