Fernando Alonso gets McLaren back into Q3
For the first time since Honda returned to McLaren, one of its single-seaters managed to slip into Q3. Fernando Alonso started 10th, while Jenson Button had to make do with 12th place.
The last McLaren driver to make it to Q3 was Jenson Button at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It was also the last Q3 for Fernando Alonso, then with Ferrari. The Spaniard was pleased not to have to watch the final qualifying session from his control screen: « “Today is the first time in a long time that I haven’t watched Q3 on television! It feels good to be part of the show. It’s the first Q3 since McLaren Honda reformed, although we probably deserved it to happen a few races ago.” »
But the Spanish driver now finds himself in the almost paradoxical situation of regretting not being able to choose his tires for tomorrow’s race: « *Let’s take advantage of this before we turn to tomorrow and see how we can convert this into championship points. We’ll have to think about it because, for the first time this year, we’re going to start on used Q2 tires. We don’t have the freedom to choose, which is a slight handicap that we will have to overcome one way or another.* »
On the other hand, Jenson Button was unable to set up his car to respond the way he wanted: « It was a difficult weekend for me. My car is light at the rear, which is not the way I like it because it means I can’t fully commit in the corners. I did my best but driving with this characteristic has never been my strong point. »
He was keen to point out, however, that the gap with his teammate was only a tenth and that he was only two places behind him: « I reasonably adapted this weekend and finishing 1.5 tenths off Fernando’s time is the best I’ve done all weekend. »
