Alonso says McLaren's qualifying pace "a relief"
Fernando Alonso admitted he was relieved about his McLaren Formula 1 team's competitiveness in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, despite missing out on a Q3 slot.
Alonso was knocked out in Q2 after setting the 11th fastest time, but could move up to the top 10 if Valtteri Bottas is sent to the back of the grid following his heavy crash during the final qualifying segment.
The McLaren driver finished 2.5 seconds off Lewis Hamilton's pole position time, but insisted his first qualifying session with the Renault-powered MCL33 had been positive.
See how they line up in Melbourne...
The Spaniard says the fact that McLaren still has progress to make on the integration of the power unit means the Woking team has a lot of potential to move up the grid.
"I'm very happy with how qualifying started. You are always curious to know where you stand and I think we have been pretty fast, especially in FP3 in wet conditions we were very close to the top all the time," said Alonso.
"Then in Q1 and Q2 we were always between seventh and 12th and as a starting point that's great because we'll have a lot of updates from now and the integration we need to do.
"We are the only ones who have to do that - so we have 'free' upgrades that are going to make us a lot more competitive and so it was a relief to reach qualifying and see that it's going to be a good year."
When asked if he expected a season-long fight with rival Renault, he said: "Now yes, but not all season."
Not having reached Q3 means Alonso can choose the tyre compound he wants to start tomorrow's race with, but he said in this case that will not be a major benefit.
"With the tyres we know that you always use the softs to start because they are better to start, you have better performance on the opening lap and there'll be little degradation as all three tyres are very similar so there's not a lot to play with there.
"We'll start 10th, I guess, because Bottas will be last, so I think it's a good starting point."
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