A Saturday of opposites for Fernando Alonso who retired in the first Sprint Race of the season - also with penalties - obtained 3rd place in the qualification for the Chinese GP.
Got it in good time
Despite the problems he had, Alonso brought his car back to the second row, equaling the result obtained in the Sprint Shootout on Friday.
This is how he comments on the lap that guaranteed him third position:
“In the first sector I had some problems because I almost lost the car in turns 1 and 2. I thought about whether to continue or abort, because I think I left two tenths in two corners. But we didn't give up, we kept pushing throughout the lap and achieved a good time".
What made the difference was the reopening of Parc Fermé which allowed the various teams - in this case Aston Martin - to make the right changes to their single-seater.
"The car has improved compared to this morning, we have changed some things in the set-up and we'll see if they translate into points tomorrow.“ Said the Spaniard, who added: “Obviously it wasn't possible to completely change the car because we were already in the rhythm of the weekend, but we were able to make some small changes. Some of these are used to solve balancing problems, while others are simple assumptions that can help us in view of the race. We won't know the answer until tomorrow afternoon, but I'm very proud of my team, we don't give up. We are not yet in the position we want, but we continue to work to improve".
Qualifying result in China still provisional
Hours have passed, but the result of the qualification it is still provisional. At the last minute in fact Aston Martin disputed the result due to an alleged breach of Article 39.6 which establishes that “any driver whose car stalls on track during the qualifying session or sprint shootout session will not be allowed to participate further in that session".
An attempt to remedy the penalty received by Alonso after the Sprint Race for sending Carlos Sainz, in this case the perpetrator of the infringement, off the track.
