Inspired drive by Alonso secures 13th on the grid for struggling McLaren-Honda- essentiallysports.com

It is safe to say that Fernando Alonso and McLaren-Honda expected lacklustre results in Shanghai. In Free Practice 3, the Spanish double world champion was languishing in 17th position. “I was driving like all the animals,” said Alonso, in reference to one of his radio messages to the team. “It is when you don’t care any more whether you have a snap or a spin or whatever. We felt really non-competitive in FP3 so we went into Q1 with pessimism in the targets. I did the lap flat out in some corners, not caring too much about the risks over the limit. We crossed the line and I thought ‘Wow, P10’ that should be enough for Q2.”

In Q2, there was a scare as the McLaren stalled for a few moments. There were also issues with the battery charging unit. “P13 in Q2 is a big surprise for us with the expectations we had before qualifying,” he explained. “Now we need to capitalise on this position and hopefully bring some points.”

Despite the fact that he showed good pace in Qualifying in the dry, he said that he would prefer that the race was wet, just so that the underpowered Honda engine has a fair chance of a decent result.