Qualifying for the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was a success for BWT Alpine F1 Team, with Esteban Ocon out-qualifying George Russell to take fifth on the grid for Sunday’s race, despite “almost putting [the car] in the wall”. Fernando Alonso remains competitive in seventh place.
“First of all, the most important thing is that Mick is OK. That was a big shunt, and I am glad to see that everything seems to be fine with him,” the Frenchman claimed.
“On our side, the car felt good and it’s good to see that we are quick around this track. It’s a very fast circuit, very technical and you do have to take some risks. I almost put it in the wall in Q3 but managed to just save it.“
“It’s only the second race with this new car and to qualify in fifth and seventh is great and we should be very happy about today. We’ve built up well all weekend and I am happy how the car has improved during all the practice sessions.“
“We’re in the mix to fight for a solid result tomorrow.”
Alonso happy to be in the top ten for a second week running
“It felt good to be in Q3 in Bahrain and now we arrive at a completely different circuit in qualifying trim, and we have both cars in Q3, so it’s a good sign for the team,” says the two-time world champion, after his second Qualifying 3 appearance in a row. “The car has definitely felt competitive all weekend.“
“With these 2022 cars we keep learning every single time we leave the garage and I think there is still more potential for us to develop. The tyre degradation is still a little bit unknown for tomorrow and now we don’t have to use the tyres we qualified on in Q2, so it gives us more flexibility on strategy,” the Spaniard continued.
“Let’s see what we can do in the race and hopefully we can take a lot of points from it.”
With one Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team car in sixth, and the other starting in fifteenth, Sunday’s grand prix at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit has potential for Alpine to score some valuable points.
