Fernando Alonso He will start the race in fourth place tomorrow Sunday at the Albert Park circuit, the scene of the Australian Grand Prix. The Asturian driver stayed behind Max Verstappen. From the first free practice on Friday and today with Red Bull. classification, despite being surprised by Russell and Hamilton’s Mercedes, which knocked him down to second place on the grid on the final lap. All in all, Fernando had a very positive read and highlighted that the differences with the RB19 have narrowed since he finished only 4 tenths of the World Cup leader today.
“This was the race against when we were closest to Verstappen, only four-tenths of it.” And until the last try, I think we were even closer. Performance-wise, it’s perhaps the best of the three time trials we’ve done this season”, Alonso said optimistically.
Confident and competitive, Fernando was relieved because the rainy predictions in the final minutes of qualifying did not come true: “Rain was the biggest threat today. Now that we have a fast car, we didn’t want any surprises or lottery, so we put both cars in the top six.”commented and also highlighted the sixth place achieved by teammate Lance Stroll.
Alonso analyzed Sergio Pérez’s early elimination in Q1 from a championship standpoint as he left Mexico last on the grid: “I think scoring more points than him tomorrow without Checo would have brought us a little closer in the championship, so overall it was a good day.” While he was more realistic about the possibility of his famous 33rd victory coming in Australia, he underlined: “Well… if there’s a carnage ahead of us, we’ll take advantage of it, but in racing rhythm I think Red Bull continues.” They also have significant speed on the straight because they’re in another category,” he admits.
“But hey, there’s only one Red Bull, the other one starting at the back, so we have to try to capitalize on any problems Max (Verstappen) had. But there’s also Mercedes who started ahead.” It’s sure to be a fun race.”Remembering that he never thought Mercedes ‘dead’, Alonso warned. “They always want to leave this car and they regret it a lot, but the truth is they’re already going fast. Of course they’re in hiding and half of the year they’ll definitely be there to fight or win a race. He did it in Brazil last year with Russell.
Looking at the race in Australia, Alonso has some doubts about his strategy: “Let’s see how we planned the race, the hard tires were a little worse than expected, especially in the low temperatures, but we expect a disaster tomorrow.” a little more heat, let the sun rise, it will help those who are in trouble, we will try to make a simple race without making mistakesQ. We saw a track with many traps, many distress flags and safety shakes in other categories, so you have to be very focused.”