Alonso: 11th would be best place for McLaren

Fernando Alonso believes 11th would be the best position for McLaren to qualify for the Canadian Grand Prix to get a free tyre choice.

McLaren was competitive during Friday practice in Montreal, with Jenson Button matching Valtteri Bottas’ time to finish FP2 in seventh place. Alonso was also part of the midfield battle, increasing the possibility of a third consecutive appearance in Q3, but he expects the top ten to move away from him when Mercedes-powered teams turn up the performance of their power units.

“We’ll see if we can get into the top ten,” Alonso said. “It was a good Friday, as I said before, but on Saturdays those who run with Mercedes engines always make a big step forward.

“Williams and Force India will be very competitive, so you add to them Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull and you’ve got the top ten covered. And let’s not forget Toro Rosso, that has always been into Q3, so it will be harder for us than in Barcelona and Monaco.

“We’ll do our best but this is probably one of the races in which not getting through to Q3 could be an advantage because we can chose the tyres we’ll start the race with, so if I qualify 11th it’s probably the best place, as to be forced to start the race with the ultrasofts will be far from ideal.”

Having almost hit the Wall of Champions during FP2, Alonso said he was pushing hard to judge the performance of the different tyre compounds.

“I’m getting very close to the wall in a few places but that’s because we have lack of grip and I have to work hard on the exit of the corners! It was a good Friday, we could try a few interesting things and also the tyres, as they’ll be the key for the weekend and it was important to try all three compounds available.”

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