Fernando Alonso once again found himself in Q3 with a special performance. As teammate Lance Stroll was eliminated in Q1 and will start the Singapore GP from P17 on the grid, the Spaniard grabbed 10th place in a tight elimination zone during Q2 to go into Q3 ahead of Albon, Colapinto and Pérez.
As only Piastri and Hülkenberg had done their first flying lap in Q3 with the clock showing 8 minutes left, Carlos Sainz triggered a red flag after crashing in the last corner, just about to start his first attempt.
The Sainz incident caused a delay that turned Q3 into a very tight 1-lap shootout, where Alonso set a 1:30.214 that put him P4, a 4th position that became P8 after Hamilton, Russell, Verstappen, and Leclerc crossed the checkered flag as Alonso’s P8 was finally a starting position of P7 after Leclerc’s deleted lap time.
The Aston Martin driver debriefed his session afterwards , saying he was “very happy with the performance.”
Aston has tended to struggle on circuits where downforce and low speed performance is key. The Spaniard showed all his speed and class to hustle his car to P7.
“I think we were struggling this weekend a lot, some weaknesses of the car concentrate on Singapore as a track but I’m very happy with the performance.”
“We were P12, P18 in FP3. It didn’t look good at all.
“In our simulations as usual we would rank the teams and we were the 7th, 8th team, close to 9th; so things are not looking great at the moment but it seems that in qualifying we tried to put the laps together.
“Some of us are making some mistakes here and there and by some casualties we ended up a little bit ahead of what the pace should be.
“Let’s see tomorrow, no points are given on Saturday so we need to complete the job tomorrow.”
The 43-year-old also stated how the good results he has achieved in qualifying during the season aren’t a reflection of Aston Martin’s true pace but more of a mix of all the factors that allow a flying lap to be perfect.
“I think it’s just so complex now.
“I think these set-ups on the Formula 1 cars, plus the traffic, plus the out-laps, plus leaving the pit lane in the right position at the right time.
“There are so many factors that you need to put everything together to have a good lap in qualifying.”
“You meet one guy exiting turn 1 or whatever and everything falls apart. We’ve been in the right place at the right time so far in the last few qualifyings.
“It’s extremely important because it’s all about track position in Singapore. So we take it but we are aware of our situation and the lack of pace is still in our heads.”
Lastly, the 2-time World Champion was questioned on whether he was surprised he was ahead of both Williams’ drivers, as he assured the Grove-based team is faster than the Silverstone-based team.
“I’m surprised because they are half a second in front of us and we outqualified them the last two events. It’s more a question for them.
“We are happy with our qualifying execution but yes they have a great potential, and tomorrow they will be a threat.”
