A rare qualifying error from Fernando Alonso leaves the Aston Martin driver starting from ninth on the grid at the Spanish Grand Prix after damaging his car.
Running wide out of the final corner in Q1 and bouncing through the gravel, Alonso suffering damage to the floor that he had to carry for the rest of the session. The Spaniard said it was a frustrating error as he wasn’t even on a flying lap at the time — having just changed a setting on the steering wheel — and took full responsibility.
“Yeah, Q1 probably did compromise everything today,” Alonso said. “I did a mistake — I went on the damp part of the circuit, I guess, in the last corner as I lost the car and it was very costly as that gravel completely destroyed the floor.
“It hurts even more because it was the out lap — I was not even pushing…so (disappointed) with my performance today, so hopefully I can do a better Sunday.”
Alonso says he could feel the loss of downforce for the rest of the session but is still confident he can move forward from ninth place in the race.
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“The car was moving…but you never know if it’s just the wind or track conditions. It was a strange qualifying to see (Charles) Leclerc out of Q1 and (Sergio) Perez, (George) Russell out of Q2. We were struggling as well; it was tricky for everyone. But in my case it was just my mistake in the out lap of Q1, so that compromises everything.
“But the race is tomorrow. We are competitive even with some damage on the floor, so if you put everything together for tomorrow, still optimistic we can score many points.”
With Carlos Sainz second and Lando Norris third on the grid behind Max Verstappen, Alonso believes he could have secured a spot on the front row even with the damage he had sustained.
“P2. Probably even with the floor as it was, because on the Q3 lap I was coming for a (1m)12.7s to Turn 10, but again I ran wide into the damp part in Turn 10 on the outside, so when I saw now that 12.7s is P2 and P3 I was surprised. But that’s why I’m optimistic for tomorrow, as the car seems to have a lot of pace.”