Fernando Alonso succeeded in getting all the way through to the final round of qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix on Friday, making it his 17th consecutive appearance in the final top ten pole shootout this season.
It's a remarkable record for the two-time world champion since hie move from Alpine to Aston Martin over the winter. Starting from fourth place on the grid on Sunday gives him a strong chance of taking his seventh podium of the year.
“I am very happy with qualifying in fourth position for Sunday’s race, after a few weekends where we weren’t as competitive," Alonso said after the end of tonight's track activity.
"The car felt fast in FP1 and it felt good again later in qualifying," he commented. "But it was very tricky to manage with the slippery track and windy conditions."
"It’s only the first step and we have the sprint tomorrow, so let’s see what we can do as there are points available on both days.”
Alonso had been frustrated with a number of incidents that took place during qualifying, at one point accusing Ferrari's Charles Leclerc of "destroying our lap". But he was praised by team principal Mike Krack for delivering the goods.
“Some strong laps from Fernando this evening to put us fourth on the grid for Sunday’s race," Krack said. "Sprint event Fridays are always challenging, especially on a dusty circuit with a lack of reference data.
"The track was evolving and improving a lot," he noted. "Full credit to the team in Silverstone and trackside for dialling the car in so quickly."
Aston had previously enjoyed a remarkable leap in performance over the off-season, and Alonso started the year with five podiums in the first six races of 2023.
But as other teams made gains in the development race, Aston struggled to keep up the momentum and the second half of the campaign has been less successful, with Alonso suffering his first pointless race of the year in Singapore.
It's put Aston under increasing pressure from the much-improved McLaren team in the battle for fourth place in the constructors championship, and 'best of the rest' status behind Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari.
Aston's cause was helped today when both McLaren drivers lost grid places after having lap times deleted for exceeding track limits. Otherwise Lando Norris would have been in P2, and Oscar Piastri in P4.
Alonso himself was initially shown in sixth place after qualifying, but was promoted two places and will now share the second row on Sunday's grid with one-time team mate Lewis Hamilton.
That's a significant improvement on where he expected to be. Before qualifying he pretty much wrote off the idea that he could repeat his podium success (with Alpine) in the maiden Qatar race in 2021.
“It could be far away, he said. "We were on the podium two years ago, and it seems a bit optimistic this weekend to think about the podium. But let’s see.
"It’s going to be a stressful weekend for everyone with the new asphalt, this temperature, only one free practice to optimise the set-up," he said. "The sprint weekend obviously will add spice to everything.”
However the team's hopes of staying ahead of McLaren in the points have been hit by Alonso's underperforming team mate Lance Stroll, who once again missed the first cut in qualifying in Qatar.
A frustrated Stroll hit a partition wall and shoved a team member after being eliminated in qualifying , which had left him in 17th place for the start of Sunday's race.
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