Fernando Alonso is hoping for mixed conditions at the British Grand Prix on Sunday, as a 30-place grid penalty means the McLaren-Honda driver will start on the back row.
The Spaniard produced a moment to savour for the fans at Silverstone in qualifying as, at the bottom of the timesheets late in Q1, he made a courageous decision to go for slicks while all drivers were using intermediates on the damp track. Crossing the line just fractions before the chequered flag fell, the gamble paid off as Alonso grabbed the top spot in Q1 leading to the crowds to cheer the 35-year-old as if he grabbed a win.
“I saw them on the in lap, the people on the grandstands [getting] excited,” he said about the reaction later.
“It was only Q1, on dry tyres, but people need to see McLaren back on the top sometime.
“I’m happy for them, happy for the team as well, they do some extra work changing a little bit too many engines, but to see a McLaren top, even in Q1, is a nice thing.”
Ultimately the session ended with Fernando 13th overall, four places behind team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne and, with his penalty, the double world champion will drop to the back of the grid but that doesn’t make him lose hope, believing a similar opportunity could come around in the race.
“We saw with mixed conditions we can be fast and we can take extra risks as we are not in the points from the starting position,” he commented.
“If it’s mixed, [points] are possible, if it’s dry, it’s going to be challenging to follow the cars in the high-speed corners, and also [due to] the lack of speed on the straights.”
As for Vandoorne, Silverstone marked the first time he has out-qualified his teammate this season with the Belgian now lining up eighth on the grid for the race after benefiting from Valtteri Bottas’ penalty.
“To take part in Q3 at Silverstone was a bit unexpected,” the former GP2 champion admitted. “But I’ve been working very well for the past couple of races, and we’ve clearly seen the improvements inside the team – in Azerbaijan, in Austria, and here at Silverstone this weekend, Fernando and I largely matched each other’s pace. It’s obviously a pretty good feeling to have made that extra step.
“We’d been hoping to get a rainy mixed-condition qualifying for a long time and I think we were pretty strong in these conditions all session long,” he added. “Then, when the track got drier, we maximised every chance we got.
“As usual, it’s very close in the midfield pack, and we usually see that some of the others have got a little something extra for qualifying. But I think the mixed conditions really helped us today. Every time I was on track, I managed to bank a good lap-time, and I think ninth in Q3 was really the maximum we could do today.”