F1, Stroll beats Alonso: Aston Martin happy despite P6 & P7

0 10 3 minutes read

With the launch of a significant replace bundle in Canada, it appeared Aston Martin to have shaken off the Barcelona damper. Fernando Alonso took a robust second place. Two weeks later, the inexperienced automobiles cannot construct on that. In qualifying for Austrian GP solely the beginning positions six succeed for Lance Stroll and 7 for veteran Alonso. Ferrari, Mercedes and even McLaren are quicker. Regardless of the brief distance, the Astons lose half a second to the highest on Friday. Is there concern?

The 2 pilots do not see it that manner. “I used to be pleased with how the AMR23 felt at the moment and I used to be additionally pleased with my final lap. I feel we received the whole lot we may out of qualifying,” stated Lance Stroll, assured of his efficiency. For the second time this 12 months, the Canadian managed to qualify his teammates, who had been considerably extra profitable thus far.

Bucking the trend: track limits complaints are (largely) absent from Aston Martin

Despite the qualifying defeat, Alonso was by no means displeased: “I feel good after this qualifying. It’s always an intense qualifying here with the lap times being so close together. If you look at the timetable over the three sessions, there’s a gap of 10 cars two or three tenths.” Nevertheless, the Spaniard struggled a bit with the topic that determined all sessions at the Red Bull Ring on Friday: “In Q2, a lap time was canceled, which forced us to put an extra set of tires on the car to get on. That then meant we only got one lap on new tires in Q3, which wasn’t ideal, but sixth and seventh place is still a good result for us.”

The teammate was also able to report the typical Austrian problem: “It was very tight with the track limits. A few laps were canceled because I tried to tackle the fast corners properly.” However, the Canadian did not agree with the complaints of many other pilots: “It was the same for everyone and is something that we are used to from this circuit.”

Rain? Sun? Alonso: Bring on both!

In fact, nothing seemed to dampen the spirits of the two men in green given their rather average qualifying performance. Asked about the uncertain weather conditions for the sprint and the race, Alonso exulted: “I think the weather will be interesting and exciting as there is a chance of rain tomorrow and maybe dry conditions on Sunday. It would be perfect to have all the conditions during the same weekend. ” Stroll also remained relaxed: “It will be very different in the wet. I’ll just wake up and see what Austria has to offer me tomorrow.”

Fernando Alonso was in good spirits despite 7th place, Photo: LAT Images

It wouldn’t be the first time that Aston Martin made it onto the podium from the second half of the top 10. The AMR23 traditionally does better in the race. But can you be sure of that after just one workout with almost no long runs? Probably not. However, this did not change Alonso’s positive expectations: “The car feels good, so I’m optimistic for the rest of the weekend.” On Saturday and Sunday, the Spaniard and his Canadian team-mate can then prove that their statements weren’t just good looks about the average game.