Alonso eyes Q3 amid Monaco traffic and luck fears

23/05/2025
Alonso eyes Q3 amid Monaco traffic and luck fears

Fernando Alonso remains wary of Monaco traffic chaos as Aston Martin targets strong F1 qualifying; Q3 hopes hinge on clean, lucky lap.

Fernando Alonso spent the first day of the Monaco Grand Prix within the top 10, and the Aston Martin F1 driver was fairly satisfied with his performance at the end of FP2. However, the Spaniard remains concerned about the role traffic will play during qualifying.

“Traffic will be the main topic here; it’s difficult to get two cars on track. Free practice is different from qualifying. Harsher penalties will be applied tomorrow. It will be tough, but it’s the same for everyone. You need to be lucky and get a clean lap to make it through to Q2 and Q3,” Alonso stated.

Despite this, Aston Martin is in a good place: “On the balance side, it was fine—it was better in FP2 than in FP1. We made some changes and, looking at the data, we saw we were heading in the right direction. Hopefully, we can make progress tomorrow.”

Stroll Shrugs Off Collision

Lance Stroll began his weekend with a collision involving Charles Leclerc, for which he received a grid penalty. As usual, the Canadian remained rather reserved on the topic: “It wasn’t a perfect FP1, I lacked some running. We did what we could in FP2 and will try to make progress tonight. That’s how it is.”