Fernando to start 12th and target another points finish

Fernando Alonso will start from 12th and is aiming to get into the points again, though he considers that a difficult task. He had not yet realised he would be 12th once all the penalties had been applied, but said he was very satisfied with his car’s performance. “We’re in the fight, and that’s what makes it enjoyable,” he summed up.

Before learning his final grid position, Alonso had been expecting to start 13th or 14th. He felt his team had been more competitive than at other weekends and had been clearly ahead of Cadillac and Williams in Austin. He also noted that his team had reached Q2 three times this year, including this session. In his view, that level of performance could provide an opportunity to chase points, without guaranteeing them.

The driver tempered that optimism by pointing out that the battle was close to 10th place and that the result would not depend on his own race alone. “We need a bit of help from the cars ahead of us,” he explained. Penalties could put some fast cars behind him on the grid, but Alonso expects them to become a threat during the race. He therefore sees a genuine chance to fight for points, rather than any certainty of finishing among them. The same goal was already central to his hopes in Malaysia.

Alonso also saw the circuit as a positive surprise for his car’s competitiveness against its rivals. Although it has two long straights, he observed that much of the track relies more on power, where his team seemed to struggle a little less. That assessment does not erase the problems he encountered during the session: he reported issues with the power unit, whose torque delivery on corner entry felt inconsistent. He said the car could pull well on one lap, then feel midway through a corner as if the handbrake were on. The variation cost him some confidence, even though he considered the qualifying session good overall.

He also described the session as somewhat chaotic. Last year, at this circuit, his team missed its final attempt after arriving late in the pit lane. This time, he chiefly took encouragement from the fact that his clean, fast laps had been free of traffic—the laps that matter most, in his view. The next challenge is to turn that performance into a result in the race. Alonso knows that penalties and events involving the cars ahead could affect his chance of reaching the points, but that does not make the target an easy one.