Fernando Alonso will be looking to capitalise on the potential demonstrated by his Aston Martin across the Friday practice sessions to climb up through the pack and secure points after qualifying 10th ahead of the F1 Dutch GP.
It’s been a weekend of contrasting fortunes for the Aston Martin pair. Lance Stroll suffered two self-inflicted crashes across Friday and Saturday, the latest incident coming already in Q1. Stroll returned to the pits, but his qualifying was cut short by the crash damage, leaving Alonso as the sole Aston Martin driver in the session.
All to play for on Sunday
At Zandvoort, the AMR25 is clearly in its element, as evidenced by Alonso’s top 5 finishes in both FP1 and FP2. This strong form continued into qualifying, where Alonso made Q3, ultimately qualifying 10th. Although this is a respectable result, particularly given how difficult of a season it has been on Alonso’s side of the garage, the Spaniard admitted the early pace left him wanting more on Saturday.
“I think our forecast before quali was P7, P8, so yeah,” Alonso told the media after the session.
“We are P10, maybe not the greatest place to start with, but every weekend we aim to be in Q3 on Saturday and on points on Sunday. So let’s see if we are on points tomorrow and more or less we achieve our goals.”
Alonso explained that the wind gusts, a hallmark of the coastal Zandvoort circuit, caught him out during the session—but conceded that the car generally lacked the pace it had shown on Friday.
“Yeah, it was what happened to me in Q3. In Turn 10, I lost two tenths and a half compared to my Q2,” he said.
“I think a little bit more luck or less luck in qualifying can change a few positions on how tight it is, everything, but yeah, we were on the lucky side today. But I think the pace was not there anymore, I think in FP3 also I was P12, so it seemed like we were not as fast as yesterday anymore.”
On race strategy
The Spaniard noted that Zandvoort doesn’t offer many opportunities for overtaking, but added that Aston Martin adjusted their tyre allocation to focus on Sunday’s race rather than qualifying.
“Let’s see, I think it’s difficult to pass here, so it’s not the best place to start, but we put a little bit more weight into the race with our tyre selection, we kept two [sets of] hards and we sacrificed a little bit in qualifying. Let’s see tomorrow if that pays off or not.”
Commenting on the new pit lane speed increase (from 60 to 80 kilometres per hour for the F1 Dutch GP) might possibly make a difference on Sunday, Alonso said: “It has been historically one-stop race here, with 80 kph it could be one or two and we have the tyres to make any call tomorrow, so that was our thought into the selection.”
Aston Martin seeing signs of progress
Asked whether Aston Martin’s impressive weekend-opening pace should be attributed solely to track characteristics, or whether the team has internally made progress, Alonso noted that some positive steps have been taken, but that they still have “a long way to go” before they can fight for the top positions again.
“I think a lot of things have changed,” he said.
“There are a couple of new components that I think woke up the car a little bit and the aeroplatform, so I think we are in a much better place now since Budapest than in the past. But still a long way off—as we saw today we are just hardly fighting for Q3, so still a long way to go.”
