Alonso: “Pole is thanks to our strategy”

Fernando Alonso praised Ferrari's decision to pit him for a new set of wet tires during Q3, which gave him a stunning pole position at the German GP.

“I think we were very close to the limit, the conditions were extreme”, said Alonso in the official FIA press conference after Qualifying. “As much as it's the same for everyone, I think it was good at times to control the circuit conditions like we did in Q3 and I think going into Turn 6 wasn't easy for anyone. There was a lot of aquaplaning and we were at 280-290 km/h. But everything went well for us, we slowed down in those aquaplaning moments, but the rest of the lap was clean and I think we also made a great strategic choice in making a pit stop in Q3 to fit fresh tires at the last minute, when the track was in a little better condition. I think it helped us a lot to improve the lap time”.

The Red team obtained a pole that was halfway between chance and logic, but in reality the F2012 proved to perform very well in all weather conditions, even flying in the dry this morning in FP3. The Spaniard comments: “It's been a strange weekend for track weather I think we've been able to experience all the conditions so far during the weekend. We did well with the Intermediates, with the Extreme Wet tires and in the dry on both days. Tomorrow we will see if it will be necessary to repeat the same strategy as today or if it will be more of a dry race: the forecast says that there should be better weather for tomorrow, so let's see how it goes. I think the car performed well in all conditions, so we are quite optimistic for tomorrow.", concluded the poleman from Hockenheim.

Lorena Bianchi