Alonso keeps his cool in Germany
Sunday 24th July 2011
Fernando Alonso said he was not disappointed by his performance in qualifying for the German Grand Prix after setting the fourth fastest time at the Nurburgring.
The Spanish double world champion won both his and Ferrari's first race of the season at Silverstone a fortnight ago and will be hoping to take the fight to pacesetters Red Bull once more in Sunday's race.
However, it was McLaren's Lewis Hamilton who proved their nearest challenger on Saturday at least when he qualified second to Mark Webber, pushing championship leader Sebastian Vettel down to third on the grid.
Alonso lines up next, almost 0.4 seconds slower than Webber, but insisted he was still happy with his performance.
"We are neither surprised nor disappointed, quite the contrary in fact," Alonso said.
"This grid is more or less what we could have expected, from what we had seen in free practice yesterday.
"We thought the Red Bulls would be three or four tenths faster than us and that was the case and then even Hamilton went very well, especially in the first sector and got in between us. In fact, McLaren had so many new parts here and you could see they were working well.
"I am happy with my lap and with the result and anyway, this year we have seen that we have always gone better in the race than in qualifying."
Alonso still has his eye on a podium finish, but admitted that Ferrari must keep striving to challenge the pace of their rivals.
"Maybe tomorrow the situation could turn around, you never know. I am still aiming for the podium, but if the chance of a win comes along I won't need to be asked twice," he added.
"Also at this track, we have seen the updates we have introduced helping to improve our performance, race after race.
"Clearly, we must take a further step forward if we want to be up there with the best."
Alonso's team-mate Felipe Massa starts fifth on the grid after setting a time almost half a second slower.
Credit: ESPN STAR (www.espnstar.com)
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