F1: Sixth Better Than Expected, Says Alonso

Formula 1

F1: Sixth Better Than Expected, Says Alonso

Fernando Alonso made the most of a challenging Saturday in Hungary...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted July 28, 2012 Budapest (HUN)

Fernando Alonso walks through the paddock at the Hungaroring. (Photo: Getty Images)

Fernando Alonso says he’s relieved to have qualified as high as sixth in Hungary after worrying that he would end up further down the order.

Alonso starts immediately ahead of his teammate Felipe Massa.

“It was better than I expected, to be honest,” said the Spaniard, "because we were a little bit worried about the Q3 possibilities with the two Lotuses, two Red Bulls, two McLarens, and Force India also looked quite quick. We made it into Q3 and then P6 is a reasonable position at the moment. Second in the championship is (Mark) Webber, and he starts 11th, so hopefully we can keep him behind the whole race.”

Like other drivers, Alonso struggled to get the best out of the softer Pirelli tire.

“It was very difficult in qualifying," said the Spaniard. "For whatever reason, the balance changed for everybody, and it was a little bit more tricky. We made some adjustments to the front wing and tire pressures, and in the end in Q3, the car was quite well-balanced.

“I think it will be an unpredictable race, as in this 2012 season has been all of them, I think. Yesterday we had rain in FP2 so we don’t have much information about long runs, so tomorrow we need to keep updating strategy every lap, and we see what we do.”

However, he stressed that a race win was probably out of reach in normal conditions.

“We have to be honest: we are not in a position to be as quick as the leaders here, I think," the Ferrari driver said. "We are nine-tenths off the pole position today, so the victory tomorrow, at the moment, I think is difficult for us. We need some strange race or wet conditions or something like that, which may happen. But at the moment we are happy with sixth.”

Meanwhile, Alonso said he’d be happy to see Lotus take points off his main title rivals: “I hope so. They are quick, they have been quick all weekend, they did a very good qualifying, and normally on race pace they are very strong. Staring up at the front, if we cannot win, for sure, for us the best thing is if Lotus wins.”

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.