Alonso spies 'great chance to score points' in Austin

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Buoyed up by confirmation that he's staying at McLaren for another season, Fernando Alonso celebrated by successfully making it through to the final round of qualifying for the United States Grand Prix.

He finished the session ninth fastest. However he will move forward one spot on the grid when power unit penalties are applied to Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

"The Q2 lap was probably my favourite [lap]," Alonso told Sky Sports F1 afterwards.

"I said to the team this was probably the maximum I could do. If we go into Q3 great; if not, I'm happy anyway. And we went into Q3!"

"I think it is a great chance to score points," he added. "We missed out in Singapore with the first corner incident. We were close in Japan with Felipe [Massa] on the last lap even though we started last with engine penalties.

"Tomorrow, if everything goes well, finally hopefully some points."

Alonso said that this weekend demonstrated some of the progress McLaren had been making over the course of the year. He explained that this was a large part of the reason he had decided to stay at Woking.

"Compared to other seasons, this year we really progressed and developed the car in the right way, in the right direction.

"[In the past], sometimes we had some difficulties to see the results we saw in the wind tunnel on the track," he continued. "But this year, every single part we put on the car is delivering what we expect.

Hamilton stays in charge in Austin with dominant pole

"That definitely gives us confidence for next year. The development that is happening now in the wind tunnel I think we have the trust that it will deliver when we put the car on the track."

Alonso insisted that the change of engine provider from Honda to Renault next year would not be an issue.

"You know Formula 1. We have all the comparions, all the data analysis where we lose, which part of the corners - high speed, low speed, the straight.

"If we put some other power unit in our chassis, we know what we can do. That was probably the best news that I had and probably what convinced me [to stay]."

As a result, he's starting to really enjoy the thrill of racing again at circuits like COTA.

"I think with this year's car you can maximise the Formula 1 potential, which is great," he said. "The high speed corners in the first section are probably the best part of the circuit.

"It's quite bumpy. I think this year more than last year.

"The second sector with a lot of straights is maybe not our favourite part of the circuit. We lose a bit of time here. But overall it's a circuit we all will enjoy."

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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.