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Aston Martin arrived in Canada without much hope for a big result, but Fernando Alonso surprised everyone with a strong showing on Friday.
He finished 16th in Sprint qualifying, which was enough to give the team its first appearance in SQ2 this season.
The Spaniard had already caught the eye earlier in the day by finishing inside the top ten during FP1, signalling that Aston Martin had made some progress compared to recent outings.
Alonso’s SQ2 run came after an incident late in SQ1 that left him with some floor damage. Even so, it stood out as Aston Martin’s best qualifying session of the year so far.
It was a result even the most optimistic of officials within Aston Martin would not have predicted, with Pedro de la Rosa being proven wrong in the best way possible.
Pedro de la Rosa wasn’t expecting much in qualifying
Pedro de la Rosa spoke to DAZN Spain ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix and suggested any real progress from Aston Martin would be more visible during the race than in qualifying.
He also highlighted Honda’s work on the power unit, noting improvements that should help make the car easier to handle.
“There will be little in qualifying, but much more in the race, because energy recovery goes from six megajoules in qualifying to eight in the race.
“Honda has worked a lot on handling, which refers to the shifting and how the gears engage, as well as how the engine torque is delivered in each shift, to make each downshift as smooth as possible.”
What he didn’t account for was just how well Alonso would adapt. De la Rosa himself even admitted he wasn’t sure if their entry into SQ2 was more about Alonso’s skill or improvements with the car.
“The car performed better than we expected. The result is spectacular given the current level of competition… We don’t know how much of this is due to the car and how much is due to Fernando.”
Fernando Alonso thinks Aston Martin aren’t ready to compete
Alonso spoke after his crash in SQ1 and tried to stop any excitement about how he finished, saying that it was a result far beyond what Aston Martin could do at this point of the season.
“We’re very far behind, and we simply don’t have the pace… I was running P14, probably seven or eight positions higher than where we actually belong.
“I locked the front tyres, and from that point I was just a passenger. And at a place like Canada, there’s nowhere to go. I was right on the limit.”
Aston Martin are still playing catch-up when it comes to pre-season testing and are learning new things about their car’s performance each day. This is something most teams were able to do before the start of the season.
This is why there’s so much pressure on Honda to get up to speed as soon as possible and deliver results for this team.
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