On an unexpectedly dry Saturday morning in Belgium, Fernando Alonso had a smooth run in FP3, and was able to conduct all of the necessary preparation ahead of the qualifying session.
The track started damp from overnight rain, but quickly dried out, enabling the Spanish driver to run to plan, completing 12 laps to set the 10th-fastest time.
Given Stoffel's grid penalties for his PU changes which mean that he will inevitably start from the back of the grid for tomorrow's race, the team elected to optimise Fernando's strategy for qualifying.
The two teammates worked well together, staying close with every run to ensure the best possible tow.
Both progressed through to Q2, with Stoffel in 10th position and Fernando in 14th.
In Q2, the team once again opted to take advantage of Stoffel's slipstream, executing a perfect strategy whereby Fernando stayed tight to his team-mate's rear wing for much of his two runs.
Unfortunately, in the dying moments of the session, Fernando lost deployment in the final sector of his final lap, and narrowly missed out on progression to Q3, ending the session in 11th.
“In the end, today was a positive day for us, if you look at the overall performance. We were 1.5 seconds from P1 in Q2, and this for us is like pole position. However, at the end of the lap, because of an issue we didn't manage to make it into Q3, but it could have been possible today,” he explained.
“The team did a great job and we tried to take benefit from Stoffel's penalty to help the other car take some slipstream on the straights. But, at the wrong time – in the last attempt in Q2 – we had a problem with the deployment, and I lost six tenths between Turns 11 and 12, so I aborted the lap because it was no longer possible to improve.
“We'll start from P11 – which here in Spa is a bit of a surprise for us anyway – and maybe being on new tyres and choosing the compound is better than starting 10th.”
