Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Bullish Alonso targets points for McLaren

Fernando Alonso is confident McLaren can score its first points of 2015 in the Spanish Grand Prix after qualifying in 13th place.

Both McLarens made it through to Q2 for the first time this season, with Alonso one place ahead of team-mate Jenson Button in qualifying at the Circuit de Catalunya. Having showed strong long run pace on Friday, Alonso says the team has put itself in a good position to finish in the top ten.

“It’s the maximum we could achieve today," Alonso said. "We start on the clean side. The race should be quite good for us, in terms of pace we seem to take care of the tyres quite well so hopefully tomorrow arrive the first points of the year for us. It’s the first time also both McLarens also are in Q2 so another step forward but we know that we are a long way off and we need to make even bigger [steps].”

And Alonso says finally scoring points is important for McLaren even if it isn't the main goal it is aiming for.

“I’m confident, I think we can take points tomorrow but it just doesn’t change too much to be honest. To finish ninth, tenth, eleventh, to score one point or two points is not what we want. We want much bigger than that, but it’s also true that for the team motivation to keep achieving some results that you can touch because at the moment there are only hopes and only words but if we can start scoring points physically in the race that can be a help and it is what we want to do tomorrow.”

Click here for Saturday's gallery from the Spanish Grand Prix

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.