Alonso could have beaten Verstappen and Russell: 'It does hurt'

Fernando Alonso did not get beyond sixth place during qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix. Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll don’t make it to Q3 every weekend, but in Canada, they did. The Spanish driver could even have taken pole, he said afterwards. All in all, the Aston Martin man is still satisfied with where he gets to start on Sunday.

for the Spaniard, then, who is in positive spirits for Sunday’s race. “Definitely a good position to start after the last two events we were out of Q1, so that was race over basically. Starting P6 and P9, we have a chance to score points tomorrow. At the same time, it was a tricky qualifying, for everyone with the wind, it was gusty and it was changing direction.”

Alonso: ‘Does hurt a bit’
The changing conditions made timing difficult for the drivers in Canada. “I think no one did a perfect lap today. It was the case for me as well, I didn’t put everything together in Q3. So when you see that you are only two tenths from pole position, it hurts a little bit, but I guess it’s the same for everyone.”

Asked where Alonso lost the two tenths to Russell and Verstappen, the Spaniard had a clear answer ready. “All in Turn 2. I lost the car so badly that I was just thinking to abort the lap and come in or keep going. And then I kept going and I was P6. So if you think that two tenths will put you in pole position, maybe it was already in one corner, everything was fine.”