Fernando Alonso grabbed his McLaren Honda car by the scruff of its neck in both Q1 and Q2 for Sunday afternoon's Russian Grand Prix, but due to the fact that the Sochi Autodrom is a speed circuit, there was very little he could do to improve the pace.
After giving it everything he had, plus more, he eventually ended the second qualifying session in 15th place overall, describing his quickest lap of the afternoon as ‘nearly perfect', even if it wasn't quick.
“It was a good qualifying in terms of the performance of the chassis and aerodynamics – the balance of the car felt quite good; quite grippy in the corners. I felt competitive, and my Q1 lap was very good,” he said.
“The tyres are tricky around here, as you need to warm them up quite hard, but everything went okay today. The sunny weather helped – and I think it's going to be a good tyre for the race.”
“Points tomorrow are our target, we need to have a good start, a good strategy, and a good race. Even then, we won't be fast enough to get into in the points so we'll need some help from the guys ahead of us.”
