Fernando Alonso admitted that he had contemplated aborting his final run during qualifying which secured him third on the grid for Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix.
The Spaniard posted an effort that was 0.488s adrift of Max Verstappen’s pole position time but enough to clinch a place on the second row behind the Red Bull duo.
However, Alonso has revealed that errors through the opening corners made him wonder whether he should abandon the lap that took his best starting spot in 2024.
“It was very good, but not perfect,” Alonso said.
“I had a moment in Turn 1 and 2, I lost the car and actually in Turn 3, I was just thinking if it was better to abort the lap and come in or keep on going.
“I said I will break very late into [Turn] 6, try to recover that time.
“I recovered one-tenth and said, okay, I keep going. I recovered another tenth in Turns 9 and 10 and I said, okay, now let’s go for the final two corners.
“It was very much needed because within two-tenths, there are like six cars and we are leading that group. So yeah, [I’m] happy with the lap, happy with qualifying.”
Alonso believes that he had time in hand to fill the gap between the two Red Bull drivers had he avoided committing the errors that he made at the start of his Q3 run.
But given Aston Martin’s expected regression in race trim, Alonso highlighted that he will revert to “seventh, eighth, ninth” places in the “natural order” come tomorrow.
“It doesn’t change too much to be P2 or P3,” he admitted. “We are completely out of position for tomorrow.
“I expect a difficult race. I think we are slower than the Ferraris, slower than the McLarens and probably the Mercedes and we out-qualify them often.
“Then in the race, we just need to wait and see when they come, how fast they come and how many laps we can defend those positions.
“But it happened so far in the first four races. So I guess this fifth race is going to be no different.”
Alonso will be mindful of his defensive tactics as the stewards elected to penalise him for a Turn 9 lunge on Carlos Sainz in the Sprint, a ruling he didn’t “agree with”.
However, the two-time F1 champion was enthused with his showing to haul his Aston Martin AMR24 up the grid, adding that it provides “encouragement for the future”.
“I’m happy for the team, proud of all of them,” Alonso, who has signed a multi-term extension to remain with the British marque, continued.
“We never give up. We are not in a strong position yet, especially on race conditions.
“We are still maybe fourth, fifth fastest team, but we’re still fighting to be better and better. And yeah, today’s result shows that.”
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