BWT Alpine F1 Team qualified for Italian Grand Prix with two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso in tenth, and Esteban Ocon in eleventh. Despite a number of grid penalties across the field shaking up Sunday’s grid, the team are still lacking performance during qualifying sessions.
After a disappointing qualifying session at the previous race in Zandvoort, Alonso hoped to improve his performance at this week’s qualifying session at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, but the Spaniard only managed to qualify in tenth place after the driver had his last lap deleted due to exceeding track limits. It meant his best lap time clocked in at 1.22.089, over two seconds off Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who sits in pole for the race. Despite making it to the third round of qualifying, Alonso hoped for a better result and claims that the team are ‘lacking a little performance in Qualifying.’
“It’s a little disappointing to finish tenth in Q3 today. My last lap time was also deleted for track limits, which I’m told was good enough for eighth position before the penalties were applied to others.
“On the whole, we seemed to be lacking a little performance in Qualifying compared to the rest of the weekend. The car has felt good and seems strong on race pace, but we have to be mindful of several fast cars starting behind us. We’ve scored points in ten races in a row, so let’s make it eleven tomorrow.”
Esteban Ocon: “Any small mistake at Monza costs time”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Alpine garage, Frenchman Ocon qualified just behind his team-mate and failed to make it into the third round of qualifying, finishing the session in eleventh place.
Hopes of rounding up the triple-header of European races on a high may be easier said than done, as Ocon is due to take a five-place grid penalty ahead of Sunday’s race action and seems to have made one too many mistakes around the Monza circuit.
By missing out on the third round of qualifying by a narrow 0.068s, Ocon was less than comfortable in his A522 as he claims to have struggled with the rear of the car which cost him valuable track and performance time, leaving the twenty-five-year-old outside of the top ten on a lap time of 1.22.166.
“It wasn’t a perfect qualifying session for us today. In the end we just missed out on Q3, after a sub-optimal Q2. We lost the rear of the car a couple of times and any small mistake at Monza costs time.
“The various engine penalties have really shaken up the grid for tomorrow, so let’s see what happens. It will be an exciting race tomorrow with potential to get in the top ten and we will be pushing hard to finish the weekend strongly and to score points.”
