• British Grand Prix - Qualifying

Alonso alarmed at Ferrari slump

Fernando Alonso was slowest in Q3 and 1.6s off pole © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• British Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso

• Teams:
• Ferrari

Fernando Alonso is concerned that Ferrari is slipping further and further back from the leaders after qualifying tenth for the British Grand Prix.

With Sebastian Vettel starting third behind the two Mercedes, it looks set to be a case of damage limitation yet again for Alonso in terms of the championship standings. Having been 1.3s slower than Lewis Hamilton's pole position time at Silverstone Alonso admitted he is concerned by Ferrari's lack of pace.

"Obviously we are not happy, we are disappointed with today's performance," Alonso said. "We are not delivering what we are supposed to deliver every weekend. Maybe the new parts that are coming are not as expected, most of them are not working, so we are losing a little bit of pace compared to the top teams. But it's hard to imagine we lose so much compared to them. If we were two or three tenths slower than the fastest car now it's difficult to believe that we are one second.

"So it's something more than that. We are not developing the car quick enough - this is true - but also here on the track maybe we don't find the right set-up, maybe the tyres are not working perfectly at the right moment; whatever the problem is we need to investigate because we need to master it."

Having failed to qualify on the front two rows for the last three races, tenth is Alonso's worst qualifying performance of the season and he said the team needs to recover straight away.

"The dangerous moment is the way we seem to perform worse and worse. If you remember at the beginning of the year both Ferraris were competitive. We were on the first two rows in the first three or four races. Even in Malaysia Felipe started on the front row of the grid - we were second and third - and here we start getting in positions that are familiar unfortunately, which is fighting for Q3 as we were last year. We need to get back to the form we had at the beginning of the year immediately."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.