Alonso wary of rival qualifying maps

Fernando Alonso believes McLaren is in a strong position but is wary its rivals are likely to make a step forward in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.

McLaren has yet to make it through to Q3 since the return of Honda as its power unit supplier at the start of the 2015 season. Despite optimism at a number of races this season that a place in the top ten is possible, McLaren tends to struggle slightly more in qualifying and Alonso believes it is due to special maps Honda does not have.

"I think we are in the same position as in Russia," Alonso said. "It looks like we’re inside the top ten, in P8 or P9, but it’s all very tight.

"But in qualifying, for one reason or another the others always get more out of their Power Units, they have a different engine mapping for just one lap and we don’t, so they get away from us. But here the engine doesn’t count as much as in other tracks, so I hope those mappings won’t give them too much lap time…"

While focusing on qualifying, Alonso admits McLaren also needs to improve the car's balance to improve traction if it wants to be as competitive as possible in race trim.

"In the long runs the lack of rear end grip showed, we were lacking traction and then we had more degradation because of that. We’ll see where we are, Toro Rosso looks strong, they’ve been in Q3 with both cars all season, so it will be difficult to beat them. Maybe we’re slightly ahead of Force India, but it was the same in Russia and in qualifying Checo [Perez] was 7^th fastest or something like that.

"The hard tyres are too hard for this track, only for installations laps and some tests, so I don’t think they’ll be used in the race. But it should be an interesting race because it’s tough to overtake, so there’s a lot to play for in qualifying and then at the start, as this is the second longest run down into Turn One of the season."

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