Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Upbeat Alonso buoyed by gap to Button

Fernando Alonso is not disappointed with McLaren's qualifying performance at the Singapore Grand Prix and says he is encouraged by his advantage over Jenson Button.

McLaren looked capable of qualifying in the top ten throughout the practice sessions at Marina Bay, with Alonso finishing FP3 in seventh position and less than 0.02s slower than Nico Rosberg. However, he qualified 12th - 0.7s clear of Button - after aborting his final lap when Carlos Sainz hit the wall in the final sector.

Asked if he was disappointed to not reach Q3, Alonso replied: “No, definitely not.

"I think practice is practice and when qualifying arrives I think everyone put some magic button to put some extra power, we don’t have that yet. So we are able to fight with the medium pack here and we are happy, you know… 11^th, 12^th without the yellow flag, I think is the realistic position that we have.

"Half a second from the top 10, which is maybe impossible even without the yellow flag, so I think it’s the position we deserve. I felt comfortable, I feel competitive this weekend, in quali the difference with Jenson is the biggest of the year, so I have nothing to complain about this weekend.”

Describing his 12th place as "the best qualifying of the year", Alonso believes McLaren can move up in to the top ten on Sunday.

“I think we start in a good position to get some points. The race here is quite tough, very demanding on the mechanical side, also on the drivers side, so there’s no room for mistake. We have to do a perfect race tomorrow and hopefully be in the points.”

REPORT: Vettel storms to Singapore pole as Mercedes dominance ends

AS IT HAPPENED: Singapore Grand Prix qualifying

Click here for some of the most memorable crashes at Singapore

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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.