Fernando Alonso said that starting from 12th place on the grid in today's United States Grand Prix could prove to be a bonus, and better than if he'd actually made it through to the final round of qualifying.
"Definitely Q3 is always the target, and the points on Sundays," he said. "But we were not quick enough today.
"Let's say that if you are in Q3 you will fight for ninth or tenth only and no more than that and you have to start [the race] on used tyres from Q2, so I think in the end being 11th or 12th is like a pole position for us starting with new tyres
"So happy more or less with the position and tomorrow we need to fight and find something because if you want to win the points it seems we're not quick enough so we need to raise our level."
Alonso's team mate Jenson Button had previously said that McLaren hoped to be the fourth fastest team at the Circuit of the Americas, but despite a strong showing in Friday's practice session that proved not to the case when it came to qualifying.
"Yeah, it seems that we are not. We are probably actually the sixth [fastest team]," admitted Alonso. "All the Mercedes power units here they put the fourth or fifth element, they seem to find the step, so we see Williams more competitive, we see Force India somewhat competitive, so life is a bit more difficult for us."
Alonso will be starting the race on supersofts, and he indicated that he wasn't worried by how quickly they had faded when tried out in Friday's practice sessions.
"It was some random degradation on the pit lane," he explained about the rapid drop off in the compound's performance in FP1 and FP2.
"I think [the first pit stop] is going to be quite early, but instead the medium tyre seems to perform quite well, very strong, so I don't think there will be any issues in the race.
"I think we will face some battles with Williams, with Toro Rosso probably, so the race is going to be interesting for us."
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