Alpine eyeing up 'valuable points' on offer in Brazil

It was a successful start to the weekend for Alpine, which saw both their drivers qualify in the top ten for the Brazilian Grand Prix sprint race this afternoon.

Esteban Ocon will start from sixth place on the grid, while his team mate Fernando Alonso will be on the row behind in seventh.

The main focus for the squad is getting the upper hand over rival team McLaren, with the pair going to the wire in their battle over fourth place in the 2022 constructors championship.

• Read also: Magnussen scores shock sprint pole in wet Brazil qualifying

Ocon and Alonso will be starting behind Lando Norris in the sprint but have every opportunity to challenging him for position, while Daniel Ricciardo will start today's sprint from outside the top ten.

The results of the sprint will set the starting order for Sunday's Grand Prix, meaning that Alpine have everything to play for today.

"[It] is a great opportunity as the grid is quite mixed up compared to what we’re used to," said Ocon. "We’ll need to be at our best to take home the valuable points on offer for the sprint race.

"It was of course a challenging qualifying session. But in the end it’s a good result for the team, finishing in sixth and seventh. It was very tricky today with the weather and we managed tyre choices well, which was important."

“I’m pleased with today’s qualifying," contributed Alonso. "We had to execute in very tricky conditions. In the beginning with the intermediate tyres we adapted quickly and it was nice to be in first place.

"Once we switched to dry tyres we were again in first place throughout, and we seemed to be fast in these challenging conditions," he continued.

"In Q3, when it started raining, it was always going to be a benefit to the ones at the front of the queue. We probably missed a chance to start higher up for the sprint."

“We’re happy with our qualifying today," confirmed Alpine's sporting director Alan Permane. "These sessions, with the mixed conditions, are always tricky to manage as it’s about striking a balance between risk and reward.

"Of course we have an eye on the championship and we took an air of caution in our decision making in these wet-dry conditions,": he acknowledged.

"We didn’t need to take any risks today as we know there’s a long way to go this weekend with the sprint and the main race when points are scored.

"We’re pleased to start in sixth and seventh. It means we’re in the mix for some points [in the sprint] and we’ll be doing everything we can to ensure we are in competitive grid spots for Sunday’s race.”

Alpine currently has the upper hand over McLaren with a seven point advantage with one sprint and two Grands Prix remaining in 2022.

But the position has been swinging back and forth race by race, and reliability issues continue to plague Alpine and could yet end up determining the result after next week's season finale.

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