Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso rued a costly red flag that prevented him from qualifying in the top-10 for Formula 1‘s Mexico City Grand Prix.
Alonso has reached an incredible F1 milestone in Mexico City, contesting his 400th Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit.
His Saturday qualifying pursuit ended in 13th place with Yuki Tsunoda triggering red flags at the end of Q2.
Without that interruption by the RB driver, Alonso was adamant that a top-10 Q3 shootout appearance was on the cards.
“Yeah, I think I was struggling on the weekend, no doubt, in the free practice, but I have to say that in qualifying I felt a lot better than practice,” a buoyant Alonso explained to select media including Motorsport Week post-qualifying.
“We were concerned in qualifying one, we opted to use three sets of tyres, at the end it was not even needed the first set.
“Then in Q2 I think it was a good lap before the red flag, I was two tenths and a half up on my previous time, so I think P8 or P9 was possible in Q2, which is an encouraging sign going into tomorrow’s race.”
Alonso finished a lowly 15th in final practice and although he only improved two positions upon this in qualifying, the feeling was far better for the Spaniard.
Despite the marked improvement, Alonso revealed Aston Martin changed little on the car in the build-up to qualifying.
“We didn’t change much to be honest, the car between FP3 and qualifying, so we have to go through a little bit of numbers and small changes we made because the car felt a lot better in qualifying, so let’s find out why.”
Fernando Alonso doesn’t expect miracles in Mexico GP
With Q2’s red flag costing Alonso a fair shot at qualifying inside the top-10 and Aston Martin’s race pace sorely lacking in 2024, the Spaniard is facing a tough task to score points in his milestone race.
However, as has become typical of his ’24 campaign, the Spaniard is well-prepared to “fight” forward rather than looking in his rearview mirrors.
“Let’s see, normally Saturday is a little bit better than Sundays for us, we always struggle more on the race pace, so I don’t expect miracles, but at the same time I’m ready to fight.
“I think obviously it’s going to be a messy start, then strategy will be important, tyres as well, demanding race for engine temperature, for brakes, so seeing the chequered flag will be a first priority.”
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