As Fernando Alonso tried to escape the clutches of the second part of qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix, the Spaniard admitted to trying to take the final two corners 'flat out'.
On his final run, the McLaren driver dared to try an enter the Jochen Rindt curve at full speed, only to run wide on the exit shattering part of his front wing. With little time to react Alonso tipped the car into Turn 10 with less downforce and went off again causing more damage to his MCL33.
The Le Mans 24 hour winner ended the session in 14th position after failing to improve his time, he will start the race from 13th place after Charles Leclerc takes a five-place grid penalty for changing a gearbox.
"I’m happy," said Alonso. "I think we did our best. I think only in Barcelona and Monaco we started in front of P13 so tomorrow starting P13 is arguably the third best qualifying of the year.
"It's not the place we want to be. We need to keep improving, but for today we maximised the package.
"I think we need to aim for points, think about the strategy. Obviously now we have a free choice of tyres so I'm relatively optimistic for good points tomorrow.
"Today this was the best we could do. On the last lap, I was two tenths worse than my previous lap already so in the last two corners I tried to do them flat out in case I recovered two tenths but the limit was there.
"I think it was the maximum tomorrow but the race is tomorrow and we start P13 with a free choice of tyres and all the possibilities are open.
With the addition of a third DRS zone to the Red Bull Ring for this race, Alonso believes it could be a close race against his rivals and is eager to have some fun.
"He added: It's gonna be a group race, probably because with the DRS zones and how close everyone is I think it's going to be interesting and fun to watch."
When asked about the strength of the front wing, Alonso believes the car should stand up to the test of racing around the Red Bull Ring by staying on the track and not straying onto the bumpy yellow kerbs on the outside of the track.
"The front wings are strong enough, it’s just I think we should be on the track," added the double-world champion.
"It's perfectly fine and we need to keep the car on track. This is the first damage I do all weekend and it was done by this frustration of being two tenths slower in the lap.
"But tomorrow we will all take more care than in practice and qualifying and I bet there'll be no damage for anybody."
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