A bit disappointed, but we will keep fighting - Alonso
Renault F1 Team driver and double world champion, Fernando Alonso, reflects on Saturday's qualifying session in Istanbul. The Spaniard made it into Q3 and placed his car on the 8th place on the Turkish grid.
"It has been quite difficult. Yesterday, the circuit was very slippery and so we weren't able to work on the set-up of the car. That's because the track conditions were changing so quickly that it was difficult to know if the progress we were making was due to the set-up changes or because the circuit was improving. So yesterday we concentrated on evaluating the new parts on the car and left the set-up work until this morning."
In qualifying you made it through to the top ten..."Yes, but I have mixed feelings about the result. It wasn't easy to decide which tyres to use and I actually set my best time in Q1 with the harder compound after I had tried the soft tyres. The difference in performance between the two compounds is therefore quite minimal but all the teams have experienced graining with the soft option and that will be an important factor in the race tomorrow. In terms of the performance in qualifying, I think we got the most from the car and it would have been difficult to have done any better as we are not that competitive this weekend."
What are your hopes for the race?"We're aiming to fight for some good points. What worries me is that I will start the race from the dirty side of the track, which is quite a disadvantage in Istanbul. Our fuel load puts us in an interesting situation in terms of strategy so we need to be ready to make the most of any opportunities that come our way in the race."
