After a tough FP3 session, Fernando Alonso had a great performance in qualifying at the F1 Monaco GP, managing to secure P7, and it got even better thanks to Lewis Hamilton’s grid penalty that makes it a P6 start to tomorrow. The two-time World Champion even expressed his excitement on the radio during qualifying, gleefully stating “I love driving this place”, when his race engineer informed him of the result.
Despite the great result the Spanish driver was uncertain if he would make it through at different points of the qualifying session, as he confessed in the print media pen.
“Even Q1, I think the last minute I was out of Q1. I was P16 I think, when I saw the big screen going to Rascasse opening the lap, so that was not reassuring for sure.”
Luckily for him, he did manage to finish his lap in time to make it out of Q1. His teammate, Lance Stroll, was not lucky enough make it out of Q1 as he did not finish his lap in time due to the yellow flag being waved for Kimi Antonelli’s crash. This means he will be starting P19 for tomorrow’s race.
Worries ahead of qualifying
The two-time world champion revealed that after a tough FP3 session where he finished P12, and his teammate, Lance Stroll, finished P15, he was worried about the performance of the car for qualifying. Alonso mentioned that they appeared to have “lost competitiveness” when comparing today’s FP3 session with the performance yesterday.
“I went to qualifying a little bit worried about the performance so now being in Q3 again and P7 makes me happy.”
After his strong performance in qualifying, he appears more ready and optimistic for the race tomorrow.
Excitement behind the wheel
The two-time world champion continued on to express the excitement of driving at the Monaco circuit as he made very excited noises after his Q2 lap on mediums. Alonso even mentioned that it is this excitement that makes him keep driving in Formula One.
“But yeah, this is Monaco, this is the best Saturday of the year. Adrenaline, you know, fun behind the wheel, excitement behind the wheel. These kind of days is why I keep driving here, because it’s so rewarding when you finish the lap with the amount of risk that you are taking in the corners and when you complete a lap it’s really nice.”
His joy was also present during the qualifying itself, with Alonso expressing elation through different exclamations along the lines of “Woo!” before he had to pit, and laughter throughout the session.
When Alonso pit during Q2, they put on the medium tires as the team believed they were “at least as fast as the soft” tire. With the mediums, he managed to put the car in P7 in Q2, and went back to the pits to prepare for Q3. However, in Q3 they did not have any more sets of mediums to use, so they had to put on the soft tire again. According to the Spanish driver, the tires appeared “very similar” for the team, but the softs had him improving his lap time. This appeared to work well, as it helped Alonso claim a P7 finish in qualifying before Hamilton’s penalty was awarded.
Expectations for the race
When asked about tomorrow’s race, the Spanish driver stated that, “In the normal Monaco, P7 in quali means P7 in the race, so I would say that P7 is the maximum tomorrow but the new rules, you know, will open different strategies.”
Furthermore, he addressed the new pit stop rule, expressing that: “In a way I would like that Monaco was in the old rules so I was more or less guaranteed P7, but it’s the way it is. Tomorrow we can be lucky and finish P5 or P4, or we can be unlucky and finish out of the points again.”
Alonso continued in a positive manner, claiming that the team will keep doing “the best job possible tomorrow” and that they will “be proud of” what they do.
