McLaren's Fernando Alonso expressed excitement at the prospect of being able to attack during the Australian Grand Prix, after narrowly missing out on the top 10 in qualifying.
Alonso targeted a spot in Q3 prior to qualifying but missed out by one position, his chances thwarted by a minor mistake at Turn 3 on his final Q2 push lap, though was not overly concerned by dropping out.
However, with a free choice of tyre strategy for the race, he feels there is strong opportunity to attack the cars in front and not just consistently defend positions, which was a theme of his approach during McLaren's period with Honda.
"I'm happy with 11th, I think it's what we deserve, happy with it," said Alonso.
"I think we showed some performance in free practice, especially this morning in the damp conditions and I think we have huge potential to unlock in the car. We're still having some issues before we unlock everything, but I think in the coming races we can be more optimistic.
"I think it's going to be a different race for us, more in an attacking mode and not only defending, it's going to be fun, especially if it rains tomorrow it would be amazing for the show. We'll see what happens."
McLaren team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne is set to join Alonso on the sixth row of the grid after qualifying in 12th place and reckons points are within the squad's grasp.
"It's difficult to tell where we expected to be exactly, but I'm a little disappointed not to be in Q3," Vandoorne said.
"I think there is potential or what we could feel in the car yesterday after the practice sessions, we thought we could be able to make the step forward but that's the way it is.
"We're in reasonable shape for tomorrow, we had some good long run pace and hopefully, we can get some points. We're in that group where a few of the teams are very close together, hopefully we can make a little bit of a difference in the race and emerge ahead of them."
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