F1: Alonso Surprised To Qualify Fourth In Korea

Formula 1

F1: Alonso Surprised To Qualify Fourth In Korea

Fernando Alonso is the World Championship leader...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted October 13, 2012 Yeongam (KOR)

Fernando Alonso says he’s surprised to be fourth on the grid in Korea, and in amongst his title rivals, after expecting to be worse off.

Alonso starts alongside Lewis Hamilton on the second row.

“At the end of the day, we’re in a position that is better than Suzuka, seven days ago, and we have to be more or less happy,” said the Spaniard.

“Obviously our main competitors, Red Bull, start first and second, which again shows us how strong they are at this moment, so we need to do a perfect race tomorrow and try to maximize our points.

“I was thinking it would be a little bit worse, to be honest, because we (Ferrari) were sixth and 11th in Suzuka. We have exactly the same car, and we are fourth and sixth here, so it’s something that’s a little bit better, and we seem a little bit more competitive, also on the long run yesterday. A little bit more confidence for tomorrow’s race, but we know that it’s going to be tough.”

Alonso is optimistic about Ferrari’s form in the race: “Sunday is normally a little bit better for us, Saturday is the pure performance of the cars, and obviously we are fighting with a car (Red Bull) that did first positions all weekend, first in Q1, first in Q2 and first and second in Q3.

“So they have a strong car, it’s the strongest point from them, but we have a team. In the race there is the start, there is the strategy, the tire management, etc., and on that aspect, I think we are the strongest.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.