- Hungarian GP - Qualifying
Alonso targeting third place by end of first lap
Fernando Alonso is targeting a move up to third place by the end of the first lap of the Hungarian Grand Prix after qualifying fifth on Sunday.
Alonso was fifth fastest in a damp final qualifying session and will start the race behind Daniel Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas, Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg. Alonso's target is to regain third place in the constructors' championship for Ferrari by beating the Williamses, but says he needs a good start to make it work.
"I'm P5 and I don't think we could beat the guys in front [in qualifying]," he said. "Probably if you go a little bit later with the track a little bit drier you could gain something, but we are talking about one or two tenths and position four is 0.6s in front of me.
"We take some opportunities that arrive to us and we start on the clean side, which normally is very important. I expect a strong start and hopefully gain some positions to be P4 or P3 by the end of the first lap. That will give us a good chance."
Alonso said Ferrari is capable of racing Williams but will struggle to make ground on Red Bull this weekend.
"We need to score points for the team, recover this third position in the constructors' championship if we can. We lost it with Williams in the last race and tomorrow we have one Williams in front and one behind. I have to try to finish in front of both if possible and I'm sure with Kimi also we will try to the best we can and finish in the points. If it's wet that could also help because even if you start at the back, if you make the right tyre choice when it's damp and you put the dry tyres one lap early you can gain 20 seconds.
"It opens opportunities to gain some places and put both Ferraris in the points - and hopefully in front of both Williams - then that third place, we should get it back. With Red Bull it is more difficult because they are 60 or 70 points ahead, they are strong here, but we need to keep scoring points because at other circuits - Spa or Monza or wherever they can struggle a bit more and we can get an advantage there. There is a long way in the championship and tomorrow is first opportunity to recover some points."
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