Fernando Alonso admitted it was pleasing to qualify seventh for the French Grand Prix on Saturday after a challenging weekend for the BWT Alpine F1 Team at the Circuit Paul Ricard.
The Spaniard had been struggling for pace up until final practice but was able to make it count when it mattered to make it into Q3 for a fifth consecutive weekend, and he put his car on the fourth row on the grid.
Alonso says tyre management will be key on Sunday, and Alpine’s long-run pace appeared strong, something that makes the two-time World Champion optimistic for a good result.
“It has been a challenging weekend so far but seventh is a strong position for us to start in tomorrow,” said Alonso. “We were not totally happy in practice with the car balance and so we’ve been working hard all weekend to improve that.
“Yesterday the long runs seemed quite strong for us, so let’s see whether we can make some gains tomorrow. Tyre management is going to be a big factor as they are overheating and graining, so it’ll be a real challenge in the heat.
“The pit lane time loss is also one of the highest of the championship, so a one-stop strategy will be ideal tomorrow, but whether that is possible we’ll have to wait and see.
“The atmosphere has been great, and we’ve really felt the love from the home fans.”
“We didn’t quite find that sweet spot with the car” – Esteban Ocon
Team-mate Esteban Ocon continued to struggle in the second Alpine, and the Frenchman failed to advance into Q3, albeit by just two-tenths of a second.
Ocon, racing in front of his home fans this weekend, qualified twelfth on the grid but will start tenth once the penalties for Carlos Sainz Jr. and Kevin Magnussen are applied.
The Frenchman will use the support of his home fans as extra motivation to fight to gain places and score points at his home venue for the first time in Formula 1.
“It’s not been a great day for us today and we didn’t quite find that sweet spot with the car,” said Ocon. “There are a few areas we need to focus on ahead of the race tomorrow, so we’ll be looking at that closely tonight.
“Due to a couple of penalties, we do start in tenth place and I will be fighting hard to progress further into the points. I’ll be using the home crowd as extra motivation!
“It’s always special to race at home and I’m going to go out and give it my all, as always.”
