29/06/2025 12:30
Fernando Alonso has admitted positive surprise over his run to 11th
place during qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix after enduring
struggles throughout the weekend. The Spaniard stated he was
changing the car "upside down" as he chased performance at the Red
Bull Ring. Alonso is seeking his third consecutive points finish,
having enjoyed a strong uptick in form of late after failing to
score in the opening eight rounds of the campaign. Alonso
highlighted his concerns with the Aston Martin car were prevalent
throughout the weekend and could not be eradicated in time for
qualifying. "I think the whole weekend has been so-so for me,"
Alonso told media including RacingNews365 . "I was not happy with
the car. "We had a very unbalanced car since FP1, very
understeering at high speed, very oversteering in the slow speed
[corners]. "We tried multiple setups between the two cars just to
try to help each other and try to get to a conclusion faster. "And
we could not move the character of the car from that and we still
ended up in qualifying with exactly the same balance problem that
we had in FP1. So that was the frustrating thing throughout the
weekend." While Alonso is holding out hope for another trip to the
points, the 43-year-old is expecting a difficult race behind the
wheel. "But on the other side position-wise is not too bad. P11 is
only one place away from the points. So let's take the good part of
the qualifying and hopefully be a little bit stronger [on Sunday].
"I [would have] signed [for P11], for sure. I was struggling. I was
changing the car upside down with set up. "Another run, the car
felt the same. Going into qualifying, the car felt the same, and I
thought it was a difficult afternoon. "So we managed to be P11,
which is a good result, but I'm concerned for [the race], no
doubts."
