Formula 1 | McLaren, Alonso on today's qualifying: "The race pace is good, but the starting position penalizes us"

Thirteenth and fourteenth positions for Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix, second round of the 2018 Formula One World Championship. The Spaniard, despite the pace expressed on Friday, was unable to exploit the potential of the super soft compound, remaining outside the second cut. The same goes for Stoffel Vandoorne, author of a session below expectations. The race pace, however, gives confidence ahead of tomorrowi, with the English Scuderia expecting to battle in the group with Haas, Renault and Toro Rosso.

Here are the words of Fernando Alonso: "Today wasn't a great day: our qualifying performance was worse than we expected. We did well in free practice but then in qualifying we lost speed and struggled from Q1. Our flying lap performance is not yet perfected: we can't get the most out of the tires in a single lap, and we need to find the reason. So far our race pace has been better than single lap pace, and yesterday during the long runs with tires already a little used we were quite competitive."

“This morning too, on the hot track - He continued - the car looked good and we seem to manage the rear tires well, which will be a good advantage in the race. But, obviously, our starting position is already compromised and we are quite far behind, so we'll see what we can do. Having said that, not being able to get to Q3 is not the end of the world."

Here are Stoffel Vandoorne's impressions: "We all expected a little more from today. We had some good sessions yesterday in FP1 and FP2 and I felt really confident in the car. We know we are in this very compact field where every tenth is fundamental for us and it makes a difference, so we have to keep improving.”

"We had good pace during the long runs on Friday and the balance was pretty good. This is a circuit where strategy and tires are quite complex, so there are possibilities. We must seize opportunities and, as in Melbourne, try to take advantage of the mistakes of others. We have free choice on the tires tomorrow, and I think it could be interesting. Tire wear has been a key point at this track in the past and there are various possible strategies" he concluded.

Roberto Valenti