Alonso: "Avoiding hitting the walls and seeing the checkered flag may be enough for a good result"

Fernando Alonso finished 17th in the second practice session of the Spanish F1 GP, on the day of the official premiere of the new Madring in the ‘Great Circus’, without having been able to set a good lap due to how much the traffic affected him in his attempts on a track in which his Aston Martin He is once again hampered by the lack of power of his Honda engine on the two straight lines (about 600 and 800 meters).

Fernando He should qualify for Q2, although in a classification in which there could be errors, accidents, stoppages, yellow flags and enormous traffic, it is difficult to talk about possible results.

“It was more about getting a little familiar with the circuit and the curves after working in the simulator. Then, in FP2, we tried to optimize the car and the set-up a little,” he commented on the work program he had to carry out this Friday, which was affected by a clutch problem when FP1 ended, which caused him to miss the first 25 minutes of Free Practice 2.

There, he tried to make up for lost time, but was slowed down at the end by several cars that bothered him on a very complex track where traffic management can be chaotic in qualifying.

On this track, Fernando hopes that the race will be a test of survival.

“The important thing is the race, where we have to stay focused, avoid hitting the walls and see the checkered flag. Maybe that will be enough to get a good result,” Fernando said.

Fernando Alonso, at the Spanish F1 GP at the MadringJosé Antonio García Sirvent / Own

Clutch problems

“Unfortunately, we had some problems in FP2. We didn’t do a normal session, so we fell a little behind the weekend programme, but we will try to recover tomorrow in FP3. And how is the handling of the car on this circuit? How does it adapt to everything? Yes, so far so good.

Options in classification

“In the end, I think we have a little bit left to finish. The qualifying order will depend in part on the performance of the cars and the battery and power they have”

Engine drivability

“I think there are no big problems. We probably still have a big deficit on the straights with the power unit, but it’s something we have to accept for now. And yes, we’ll see tomorrow.”