Alonso reckons Barcelona podium 'a little bit too far away'

Fernando Alonso believes he can bring home a healthy bag of points from Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix, but scoring a podium might be a bridge too far the Aston Martin charger.

Alonso rued an off-track excursion in Q1 that damaged the floor of his AMR23 and another off in Q3 at the same spot, with the sum of his errors costing him a potential spot on the front row of the grid alongside pacesetter Max Verstappen.

"P2, probably even with the floor as it was," he explained. "Because in the Q3 lap I was coming for 12.7s until Turn 10. Then again, I ran wide into the damp part in Turn 10 on the outside, so when I saw that 12.7 is P2 and P3 I was surprised.

"That's why I'm optimistic for tomorrow, because the car seems to have a lot of pace."

Alonso said he wasn't even pushing when he veered off course and into the gravel in Q1.

"It was very costly because that gravel completely destroys the floor," he said. "And yeah, it hurts even more because it was the lap.

"I was not even pushing, it wasn't a push lap, it was the out-lap. So I'm disappointed with my performance today, hopefully I can do better on Sunday."

• 2023 Spanish Grand Prix - Qualifying results

So far this season, Alonso has scored five podiums from six races. But the 41-year-old thinks a spot among the top-three at his home race is a tall order.

"Maybe the podium is a little bit too far away, starting P9, but the top five is something we should target," he said.

"We have the pace, we have good degradation, and with the new layout [we don’t know] if it’s easier or worse to overtake, what we should do in the strategy.

"I realised that Checo is starting at the back, so it's like a starting P10, not P9 because he will pass by very fast, and then from that point, we need to recover four or five places. It's going to be tricky but we will do our best.

"But today was not my best day, sorry for the team and fans, but tomorrow is the race and we’ll give it all."

Alonso might all have his teammate to contend with in Sunday's race as Lance Stroll will line up P6 - or perhaps even higher if Alpine's Pierre Gasly is sanctioned for impeding two other drivers in qualifying.

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