F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Alonso spin was out of frustration after mistakes

Fernando Alonso says his spin in the final part of qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix was a result of frustration at earlier mistakes.

The Spaniard was one of the first drivers to start his final lap on a drying track at the end of Q3, but spun at Turn 9 to bring out the yellow flags. Most drivers had to abort their attempts as a result, and Alonso said he was annoyed he had already ruined his lap with errors earlier on.

"I did a mistake in a couple of corners already that lap," Alonso said. "So I was not happy with the start of the lap and I overdrive, probably, a little bit too much, and a little bit of frustration as well in the last couple of corners. I made a mistake on this frustration also, which was the spin, and also missing the lap.

"I think it was possible to improve a lot on the lap time that we set before and the only thing [to remember is] that probably everyone improved the lap time and I don’t know if the final position could be better, the same or worse because everyone would improve, not only us.

"So I’m a little bit sad because of this and disappointed with myself, but at the end of the day we have been seventh in every single session this weekend and hopefully tomorrow we can improve that position and score some points."

Explaining the earlier mistakes, Alonso said: "I braked very late into Turn 6 and cut the chicane, lost time there, but I wanted to recover some time and overdrived probably at Turn 8 and Turn 9 and had the spin.

"A little bit of frustration there because I think we could have gained a couple of tenths, but I lost because of my mistake. But anyway seventh is okay and on the clean side of the grid for tomorrow. Everything is looking good so far this weekend, but we need to finish the job tomorrow."

Despite the error, Alonso says he is focused on the positive result after team-mate Jenson Button also reached Q3, marking the first time both McLarens progressed since the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

"I’m very happy, both McLarens in Q3 I think it’s the first time since 2014 and the Mercedes engine, so definitely a step forward this weekend. I was enjoying the tricky conditions especially and in Q2 we were very very fast. It was looking good and we need to finish the job tomorrow."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.