McLaren Honda driver Fernando Alonso wrung the absolute maximum from his car in qualifying on Saturday afternoon at the Brazilian Grand Prix to line up sixth on the grid for Sunday afternoon's Brazilian Grand Prix.
The Spaniard had looked a top-10 contender all weekend, and set the sixth-fastest time in Q2 and the seventh-quickest lap in Q3.
However, he will move up one place on the grid due to fifth-fastest Daniel Ricciardo's 10-place penalty.
โI'm happy with P7 today, particularly because it was a difficult qualifying. Conditions were very tricky: you see drops of rain on the visor, and that takes some confidence away even when the asphalt is completely dry. So you have to trust what the car is doing, and commit to the corner even though your mind is saying something different,โ Fernando explained.
โYesterday, we weren't completely happy with the balance of the car and with the performance, but today the car stepped up and we were more competitive.โ
โP6 is a fantastic starting position for scoring points, but we know that Hamilton and Ricciardo will come back very strongly tomorrow. I'll try to defend as much as I can even though tomorrow we expect a very sunny day and completely dry conditions, so it's not going to be easy to hold on to our position.โ
โA little bit of rain is always welcome for us. We seem to be more competitive in damp conditions, but being in the top 10 tomorrow is our goal. Saturday has been great, let's see what Sunday brings."
