Alonso hails “perfect” McLaren qualifying result in Barcelona 

Fernando Alonso has labelled his latest Formula 1 qualifying performance as “perfect”, after sealing eighth place on the Spanish Grand Prix grid. 

Bolstered by a new aerodynamic upgrade introduced for this weekend, home-favourite Alonso secured McLaren’s first Q3 appearance of the season in Barcelona, before claiming eighth on his final run in the final segment of qualifying. 

Alonso, who has scored points at every race so far in 2018, believes McLaren optimised its qualifying performance, adding that out qualifying both Renaults and one Haas was a “nice surprise”. 

“It was maybe a perfect qualifying for us,” Alonso said. “We tried to do our best performance, and it was not clear today which tyre was the quickest one over one lap. 

“We decided to test both tyres in Q2 to see which one was the fastest, and then in Q3, we found that both tyres were quite similar over one lap, the red and the yellow, and we repeated the same sequence in Q3. 

“That was the reason. Obviously you have to know that we have very limited tyres. You go into qualifying with two sets of red, two sets of yellow and two sets of white. You have to go through Q1, Q2 and Q3, so Q3 more or less you have to use the ones we had left. 

“Some of the people used two yellows in Q2, and then they didn’t have any yellows in Q3. I think we optimised the qualifying. Obviously for us it was the first time in Q3 this year, and P8, being in front of one Renault and one Haas was a very nice surprise.”

Alonso is the only driver inside the top 10 who will begin Sunday’s race on Pirelli’s red-marked Supersoft tyres and the Spaniard admits he has no idea whether McLaren has made the right call. 

“I think we will be the only one in the top 10 using the red at the start. We don’t know if that’s good or bad. It depends on how the temperature is tomorrow, how the conditions are. 

“Maybe it’s damp at the start, maybe there are many different things that may happen and it could be bad or worse to be on the red. I’m happy with the starting tyre that I have and the position we have. We’ll see tomorrow.”