Ferrari's Fernando Alonso is confident he will quickly reemerge as a championship contender, despite his relatively poor showing at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday. Alonso is not too disappointed with his fourth-place finish in Melbourne and is determined to stay positive about his chances ahead of next month’s Malaysian event.
“It wasn’t the start that we all wanted but nor is it anything to get worried about,” he explained on his official Ferrari blog. “Twelve points is not far below the world champion’s average last year and two title contenders finished behind me. So, overall, the Australian Grand Prix can’t be defined as disastrous.”
After qualifying down in sixth, Alonso’s Australian run was further hampered by an awkward start, which had pushed him down to ninth by the end of the first lap. However, an aggressive fight back, which was aided by his car’s stronger race pace, eventually secured him fourth behind Red Bull’s dominant victor Sebastian Vettel, the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton and Renault’s Vitaly Petrov.
“Certainly, in qualifying we were very far from Vettel’s Red Bull and far from Hamilton’s McLaren but in the race the situation improved - perhaps not compared to Sebastian but certainly against the others. The start was a pity. If I hadn’t found myself down in ninth place at the beginning of the first lap I’d have been able to fight to the finish for the two lower steps of the podium.”
The 29 year-old is now fully focused on April’s Malaysian and Chinese rounds. “It’s important to prepare very well for the next two rounds, which are back-to-back,” he concluded. “They are both very demanding from a physical point of view, especially Sepang where we drive in very high temperatures.”
Alonso plans to stay in Australia, before travelling over to Malaysia next week ahead of the Sepang race, which will take place from April 8-10.
Credit: Formula One Administration Ltd (www.formula1.com)
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