He Aston Martin It was one of the worst cars on the grid late in the championship and Fernando Alonso I didn’t have high expectations Qatar. In fact, a few hours ago, after finishing 11th in the sprint race this Saturday, The Spaniard made it clear that his car was 8th (out of 10) on this track and he should aim for 17th. But it happened again.
As has been the case in many events in the second part of the World Championship where the poor performance of the car did not reflect the high level of Asturian driving, Fernando once again got a potential from his car that neither F1 nor the his team. . own team is expected. He was 8th in qualifying after another masterpiece, with a car more for what his teammate did, 15th, than what he actually did in the hands of the Asturian .
“The truth is that they had good laps today. We got the pace well from the first set of tires and we went a bit faster, sometimes too fast and The limitations of the track played with us and we had all the pressure for the last attempt to enter or not to enter and we withstood the pressure well. The truth is I’m happy and a bit unexpected to be in Q3.”the Spaniard argued with ‘DAZN’.
Fernando had to take maximum risks throughout qualifying and drive to the edge of the cliff to do more than expected. And on top of that, I had to maximize all areas: I had to make good start laps, manage the traffic, warm up the tires correctly and drive hard in a very nervous car.
He had to take a risk and that caused him to exceed the limits of the track in his first test in Q2, something that invalidated his round. He played only one card and got into Q3 with the 8th best time. In that last session he only had a new tire and he played it again with a bullet. And he scored again the 8th best time with a lap where he drove at the limit.
He had to overcome a crash in Turn 1 with a very nervous rear end, deal with understeer in Turn 2 and another crash before the fast zone, nailing the rest of the corners perfectly to make the difference.
Without walking any further, In Q2 he was at least 7 tenths ahead of his teammate Stroll after surprising in Q1 with his first masterful lap of the afternoon, where he was 6th in the early part of the session.
Changes after sprint race problems
The key was changing the settings he applied to the car after having several setbacks in the sprint race. “We made changes to the car settings with the problems we had in the sprint race: a lot of understeer in the fast corners and oversteer in the slow corners. The car was a bit disconnected in both parts of the circuit. We made some changes and I think it’s in the right direction, or so it seems, so hopefully this Sunday we can confirm it.
“This was not expected. The truth is that we are suffering. We have been 8th, 9th, or even 10th car for months now. So getting into Q3 has been an impossible task recently and we achieved it today, I think the car was at its best in all the laps: temperature, good starting lap, good traffic management by the team, and then the circuit will be better for us because the whole weekend was quite we are more competitive. So I’m very happy. Now we have the hardest task left, which is this Sunday, handling the points. “Today in the sprint race we cannot follow Gasly’s Alpine or Magnussen, so even if we come out in eighth, we will not consider the points closed because it will be difficult.”
The good performance of his car with soft rubber in cold track conditions can make a difference, something different from what was seen in the short sprint classification on Friday, where by regulation the medium that tire must be used on SQ1 and SQ2. With that rubber his car didn’t run as well as it did with the soft tires.
“We felt better today on the soft tire than the SQ2 medium in the sprint classification. We didn’t get to the SQ3 on Friday so we didn’t test the soft, but today we feel more comfortable. Maybe the red tire fits better on our car, but tomorrow it won’t be used and it’s hard this Sunday, but the job is done today,” he concluded on ‘Fox Sports’.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
