- Singapore GP - Qualifying
Alonso encouraged by surprising qualifying pace
Fernando Alonso thinks he can battle for a spot on the podium at the very least from fifth on the grid after a surprisingly competitive qualifying for Ferrari in Singapore.
Traditionally this season Ferrari has been strong in free practice and then dropped off in qualifying, but this was not the case in Singapore as Alonso topped FP3 and then continued to be strong in Q1 and Q2 with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. Ferrari's edge seemed to fade slightly in Q3, however, with Alonso and Raikkonen having to settle for fifth and seventh.
But Alonso says he expected the drop off to come much quicker but now expects Ferrari to be part of a scrap for a strong result on Sunday given the small margins separating the top teams.
"It was quite a surprise for us to be honest," Alonso said. "Two tenths from pole position is something that we could not imagine yesterday. In free practice we normally are competitive and then in qualy usually we lose some ground but it didn't happen here, in qualy we were still competitive too so that was good news.
"I think the podium obviously is closer than ever because the level of competitiveness is quite good this weekend. We are competitive and we are starting in the top five so why not think about the podium, but victory I think is very optimistic. The reasons are not clear. Probably the track characteristics suit our car a little bit better, we know the power effect is quite low here. I felt confident in the car from lap one. From lap one in FP1 I was first and I stayed first in FP1, so it is a circuit that I feel normally confident at also."
Alonso admits he went into Q3 thinking he had a genuine shot at pole, but does not believe he can be disappointed with fifth given Ferrari's pre-qualifying expectations.
"I was more confident than any other time. In qualy always we feel less competitive straight away from Q1. But here we were OK in Q1, OK in Q2, and then in Q3, it's two tenths, or some milliseconds, to third. We would like to be in those positions, we are not. We are seven milliseconds from Felipe [Massa] but we could be sixth and on the dirty side of the grid so we have to take it.
"I was second in FP3 in Monza so normally for the outside impression, the positions in qualifying are never good because we are too good in free practice. So today I understand that people outside still have the impression - we are P5 and P7, people expect P1 and P2 but we didn't, so we're happy."
Best qualy performance so far this year in one of my favorite tracks!! Very very happy !! Looking forward to the race pic.twitter.com/kvAr1KQQbE
— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) September 20, 2014© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
