Alonso Praises Aston Martin's Leap in China GP

Alonso shines in China, securing a strong third place in the Chinese GP qualifiers, highlighting Aston Martin’s improvements.

Fernando Alonso was the best of the rest behind Red Bull this Saturday in the qualifying rounds of the Chinese Grand Prix. The Aston Martin F1 driver qualifies third for the race and hopes for a strong performance in the long runs tomorrow.

“I don’t know if Checo is far away, but I lost the car in turns 1 and 2. I didn’t know if I should give up the lap as I had lost two-tenths in two turns,” said the two-time world champion.

“We didn’t give up, I pushed throughout the lap and we clocked a good time. The car has improved since this morning, we made some setup changes and we’ll try to convert that into points.”

The Spaniard praises the rule that relaxes the Parc Fermé between the sprint and qualifying: “It’s the same for everyone. You can’t completely change the car because you are in the rhythm of the weekend.”

“But you can still make setup changes, some are for balance but for others, you do it randomly and flip a coin. We won’t know the answer until tomorrow but I am happy and proud of the team. We don’t give up, we are not where we would like to be but we continue to give our all.”

Always reluctant to comment on his performance, Lance Stroll limits himself to a few words to discuss his 11th place: “It was okay. We made some changes, it should be better, we’ll see what it will be like in the race tomorrow.”