Fernando Alonso: "We will start the race on the wrong foot"

MADRID, 23 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Spanish driver Fernando Alonso (Alpine) has assured that he will start the race in the United States Grand Prix "with a changed foot", after being ninth in the qualifying session and having to start fourteenth after changing the power unit, and He explained that the goal will be to be "close to McLaren".

"After Q1 and Q2 I still expected to be seventh or eighth, but after FP3 this morning we saw that we were not very competitive. In fact, Esteban -Ocon- was left out in Q1, which is not very normal for us So going into Q3 and in the end finishing ninth, more or less satisfied, but with the engine change and everything, starting fourteenth tomorrow... It's going to be a race with a bit of a change of foot. We'll try to finish eighth or ninth That will be tomorrow's 'target'," he told DAZN after the qualifying session.

On the other hand, the Asturian did not hide that the objective of the North American event is to be "close to McLaren". "Even if we had finished ahead of Lando - Norris - he was going to get the position for free with our penalty, so it wasn't much of a goal," he said. "Tomorrow I think we have more race pace than we showed today in the time trial. Let's see if with the strategy we can come back. Eighth or ninth, ahead of Lando, will be the goal," he insisted.

Finally, Alonso lamented the death of Dietrich Mateschitz, founder and owner of Red Bull. "The paddock is in a bit of mourning today. He has been an important person for Formula 1. He had two teams, AlphaTauri and Red Bull. He has trained a large number of drivers in his academy. He has put the Austrian Grand Prix back on track. on the map and he has done great things for the engine. We will all miss him and show him respect tomorrow with a good race."