‘Maybe they didn’t see the 99% of the lap’: Alonso defends Singapore Q1 exit
Fernando Alonso has rejected the idea that a lockup cost him a place in Q2 at the Singapore Grand Prix, insisting his lap was the most Aston Martin could extract from the car.
The two-time world champion was eliminated in 17th after a 1m34.223s lap at Marina Bay, finishing 0.054 seconds away from progressing. Team-mate Lance Stroll went out alongside him, as did Williams' Alex Albon, Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull's Isack Hadjar, who failed to set a time after repeated gearbox trouble. Max Verstappen went on to take pole position.
Alonso locked up on what he considered an otherwise strong lap, but he did not accept that it decided his session.
"I don't think so," he said. "I think I'm seven tenths in front of my team-mate, so if someone thinks that because of the half a tenth lockup we are not in Q2, maybe they didn't see the 99% of the lap."
He argued the true picture was worse than the classification suggested. "Probably we should have been much further behind," Alonso added. "And with [Isack] Hadjar competing, probably we would be even 19th or 20th or something like that. So I think that was the maximum, it was a very strong lap."
Aston Martin's bigger concern is reliability. Alonso said the engine problems that appeared in the sprint race earlier in the day had carried over into qualifying.
"We still have a little bit of problems and concerns on the engine," he said. "We faced it in the sprint race and I think it's still happening in qualifying."
That points towards a possible penalty. Hadjar, who qualified last, is already in line to start from 22nd as George Russell's engine penalty puts him in 21st. Alonso said Aston Martin may have to take a fresh power unit for Sunday's race.
"Probably I start from the back if we change the power unit," he said. "But let's see how we end up."
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