With a new floor and new top body being introduced this weekend ,Alpine’s Fernando Alonso would have expected to bring out a similar qualifying performance as in Canada , but could qualify only P7 in Saturday’s qualifying . Silverstone’s weather was largely inconsistent and heavy rains made the qualifying a real thriller to watch .
Alonso easily went past Q1 and Q2 , he even went fastest in the starting of Q3 by three seconds but ended in P7 . He revealed that he did not push enough as he did not have enough battery left for the final lap .
Alonso said , “There was more to come today .Unfortunately, we didn’t use it in Q3. Q1 was OK, Q2 was OK, and then Q3, yeah, the first lap, we were P1! I thought OK, this is going well!
“But then obviously, you need to start timing to cross the line as late as possible in the session, but with the battery full as well, so you need to recharge on the lap before.
“We didn’t have that much margin. We went for a push on the lap before. In the end, we managed to cross the line with three seconds of margin, but with no battery any more.”
Alonso joked and said that he is not worried as P7 is his natural position . He said ,”We lost maybe a couple of places because of that,” Alonso said. “I think if you qualify in front of Lewis [Hamilton] or George [Russell] or [Lando] Norris or something, maybe tomorrow, you end up in your natural position.
“So in the end, P7 I think is where we will fight tomorrow, so it’s OK.”
Alonso is still confident as he hopes some changeable weather conditions could benefit them .
He said ,”We are not, unfortunately, fighting for the championship, but sometimes we can take more risks than the others,” Alonso said. “Even today in Q1, we waited like six minutes, the only two cars in the garage were the two Alpines. We said it’s not going to rain heavier in Q1, so let’s wait a little bit and go at the end.
“This kind of thing, you cannot do it when you are fighting for the championship. Tomorrow, if we have mixed conditions, maybe we can be a little bit more brave.”
