F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Alonso puts it on the limit in 'best qualifying of the year'

Whether he was genuinely impressed with his result or using a bit of self-persuasion, Fernando Alonso labeled his P13 qualifying effort at Silverstone as his "best ever" performance of the year.

On the surface, Alonso qualifying outside of the top ten and well ahead of team mate Stoffel Vandoorne appears as fairly routine for the McLaren driver.

The Spaniard however saw his Saturday afternoon in a very different light, telling Spanish TV his fastest lap in Q2 was "beyond the limit".

"I think today was without a doubt the best qualifying of the year and the best weekend overall," he said.

"All of Saturday has gone well and we were very competitive given our possibilities, obviously. So I'm happy and hopefully tomorrow we can score some points.

"The position is more or less the same as always, but it's a long track with a lot of downforce demands.

"We knew the problems we could have here so I think we managed to pull a complicated qualifying through with a good position and starting from the clean side."

Alonso reined in his enthusiasm a bit however, reminding his fans that McLaren's level of performance will remain capped at least until new updates find their way on the team's MCL33.

"Overall, I'm happy, but we know our limitations, which are the same as in France and Austria, because the cars are still the same," he said.

"Hopefully in Hockenheim we can have some updates and in Hungary again. We know we still need some tenths to be up there with Haas and even Sauber, which is now at Haas' level."

Commenting on Charles Lelerc's Sauber now regularly running ahead of McLaren, Alonso mischievously said: "It's three Ferraris on track now!"

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Michael Delaney

Recent Posts

Williams' headaches persist into Vegas practice

Williams is continuing to fight uphill battles this weekend in Las Vegas as a knock-on…

50 mins ago

Ferrari's Sainz 'not satisfied with where we are' in Vegas

It was a solid start to the Las Vegas weekend for Ferrari with Carlos Sainz…

2 hours ago

Norris labels McLaren long-run pace ‘shocking’ in chilly Vegas

Lando Norris didn’t hold back in his assessment of McLaren’s performance on the opening day…

3 hours ago

Hamilton delighted with ‘consistently strong day’ in Vegas

Lewis Hamilton was particularly happy with his opening day of running at the Las Vegas…

5 hours ago

Verstappen stuck with 'draggy' rear wing for Vegas

Red Bull fears that its prospects for this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix - which…

5 hours ago

Ferrari and Mercedes admit to plank changes based on FIA’s TD

Ferrari and Mercedes have both modified their car’s floor element in Las Vegas to comply…

6 hours ago