Alpine’s feelings since they landed in Saudi Arabia had been really good. Although it is true that the weekend did not start very well with the news of an engine change for Fernando Alonso after a problem detected after the race in Bahrain, that did not prevent the Asturian from continuing to focus and with a clear objective.
From the first minute of qualifying, both Alonso and his teammate Esteban Ocon were really competitive, consistently in the top ten.
With both drivers in the last round of qualifying (Q3), Alpine had already fulfilled its big goal of Saturday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, but the most difficult part still remained, to maximize the result as much as possible.
Finally, Ocon took a big lap from the moto to see the checkered flag in fifth position as first of the rest, only behind the Ferrari and the Red Bull, while Alonso finished seventh, behind the Mercedes of George Russell , but with very positive feelings.
“Happy, in Q1 I felt really good. In Q2 with the red flag, there was a bit of a wait where you never know what to do in the car, but hey, it was good too. And in Q3 the two laps were well, seventh place was the maximum for today”, the Spaniard took stock.
“Both in Bahrain and here, both TTs this year so far, we’ve entered Q3, having both Alpines in the top 7 I think is a good qualifying.”
Already thinking about the race that will take place tomorrow at the Jeddah Street Circuit, Alonso , who will start seventh, admitted that one of the keys will be to get the strategy right.
“We will now see the strategy what they tell us, we no longer have the rule of starting with the soft tires from Q2, so that is one less problem.”
“You have to see to choose between the yellow (medium) and the white (hard) which is the best for the race, for the start, how many stops and so on, but I think we are in a better position than a week ago in Bahrain”, concluded the Spanish pilot of Alpine .
