Fernando Alonso continued his recent brilliant qualifying form as he will start P6 for the F1 Abu Dhabi GP.
Although he was P9 in FP2, the two-time World Champion was not happy with his AMR25 on Friday night. It led to big set-up changes overnight for the Spaniard.
P4 in final practice and showing tremendous pace, Fernando Alonso continued to be rapid in F1 Abu Dhabi GP qualifying. He was P4 in Q1 and Q2 as well.
While he was 0.041s slower in Q3 versus his Q2 best, P6 was a fine effort as he was the top midfield runner.
A delighted Fernando Alonso after qualifying for the F1 Abu Dhabi GP
With long straights and low speed corners, Aston Martin were not expected to feature in the top 10 in Abu Dhabi. Ultimately, though, the Spanish driver delivered following great work by the team on the car overnight.
Unsurprisingly, he was extremely happy when speaking in the print media pen.
“Very, very happy.
“A little bit unexpected, to be honest. We had some concerns about this layout.
“All the low speed has been our weakness the whole season. We came here not very confident about the performance in Abu Dhabi.
“Yesterday the car felt not great, to be honest. A lot of understeer, a lot of problems in the slow speed corners.
“We changed the set-up overnight. We’ve been brave with some of the experiments that we tried overnight.
“This morning the car felt good, so we kept that set-up for quali.
“Honestly, the car was more competitive than expected, so I’m happy for the team.”
Fernando Alonso hopeful for a strong F1 Abu Dhabi GP
Races like Hungary and Qatar (before spinning) have shown Alonso can hold his place at the front of the midfield providing he has a decent race car. Other ones like Las Vegas are examples of Aston Martin going backwards in the races because of a lack of race pace.
Nonetheless, the 44-year-old is confident of a good showing to conclude 2025 tomorrow.
“Yes, definitely.
“With yesterday’s car, we could not turn into the corners. Now we can turn the corners, so it will help not to crash.”
