Alonso laments team's costly tyre choice mistake

Fernando Alonso's performance in qualifying brought him a lackluster 14th spot on the grid and a few frustrations and complaints to go with it.

The McLaren-Honda driver failed to make the cut into Q1, blaming his team for a costly tyre choice error, while team mate Jenson Button just made it into the final segment but delivered an amazing P5 performance.

"Yeah definitely it was not a smooth qualifying for us," lamented the two-time world champion.

"We had the threat of rain so we tried to do a quick run in Q2, unfortunately when we took the blankets off the tyres were not the new tyres, they were the old tyres from Q1.

"That was a surprise for the whole team probably and more for me and then when we put the new tyres we had some yellow flags and we aborted the lap, so yeah not a smooth qualifying. Hopefully tomorrow we can take up some positions."

While hopeful of making progress up the field on Sunday, Alonso admitted the mistakes, however small they may be, only make a complicated situation even worse

"It's frustrating. We are already not too quick. We are not in a very good position and if on top of that we make those primary school mistakes -- it's frustrating.

"It was tough but with Perez out, Sainz out, we only had to beat the two Haas drivers so I think it was very possible to reach Q3 but we didn’t execute qualifying good enough."

Tongue in cheek, the Spaniard concluded that he could perhaps deliver a good race performance tomorrow, "If we put on new tyres to start the race.."

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Phillip van Osten

Motor racing was a backdrop from the outset in Phillip van Osten's life. Born in Southern California, Phillip grew up with the sights and sounds of fast cars thanks to his father, Dick van Osten, an editor and writer for Auto Speed and Sport and Motor Trend. Phillip's passion for racing grew even more when his family moved to Europe and he became acquainted with the extraordinary world of Grand Prix racing. He was an early contributor to the monthly French F1i Magazine, often providing a historic or business perspective on Formula 1's affairs. In 2012, he co-authored along with fellow journalist Pierre Van Vliet the English-language adaptation of a limited edition book devoted to the great Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. He also authored "The American Legacy in Formula 1", a book which recounts the trials and tribulations of American drivers in Grand Prix racing. Phillip is also a commentator for Belgian broadcaster Be.TV for the US Indycar series.