Fernando Alonso was on course to put in a great performance in qualifying on Saturday in Melbourne, as he was fifth in both Q1 and Q2, as well as managing to make two good sectors in his attempt in Q3, which suggested a pace to fight for for the best positions.
However, safety systems controlling oil pressure cut his Alpine’s engine on his first flying lap in the final round, sending him into the wall, meaning Alonso could only finish 10th in the Grand Prix standings. from Australia.
Esteban Ocon , for his part, was 11th in Q1, 10th in Q2 and 8th in Q3, benefiting from Alonso’s lack of time and Carlos Sainz’s problems, who could only do one fast lap as he couldn’t Warm up your tires well. In Sunday’s race, the French driver finished 7th.
“I think I have mixed feelings about this weekend,” he said when asked by Motorsport.com about his performance. “We probably could have done a bit more this weekend with the performance of the car in general, so to finish seventh is good, it’s three races out of three in the points.
“It all depended on qualifying on Saturday, and a top five in qualifying would have been a top five in the race as well. I have mixed feelings about that but it’s good to know, because we can steer the development (away from) the wrong decision we made. this weekend”.
“Yesterday there was clearly a top-five in our car, like the pace of the team. Sector two was competitive, and sector three was the one we lacked the most as a team.
“Since Friday night we made the decision to set up our car in a different way. It was obviously to try to steer the development more in one direction, but it didn’t work out in the end.
“But on a not-so-great weekend, finishing seventh and getting six points is pretty decent.”
Asked if he could elaborate on the differences between the cars, he said: “No. We’re too close to the front to give anything away!”
At one point in the race, the team asked Ocon to cool down his car, but that was the result of being stuck in traffic, not a problem with the power unit.
“We did 25 or 30 laps with DRS, which is a bit extreme,” he said. “It’s normal that I have to pick [my foot] up at some point and Alex [Albon] was very fast anyway, so there was no real intention for me to get into the fight and lose more time. I think it was good as we did.”
As for his form in 2022, he added: “It’s very encouraging. Three races, three times in the 7th, 6th, 7th points is good, for sure, 20 points after three races is a solid thing. I’m happy with that.” But I want more.”
