(Motorsport) In a surprising result, two time World Champion Fernando Alonso finished 0.169 seconds faster than reigning world champion Max Verstappen in the Final Practice on Friday ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Aston Martin have looked very impressive in pre-season testing and ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix. The Spaniard also ruled out a potential title challenge for the upcoming season, being slower than Verstappen by just 0.048secs in race simulation tests.
Aston Martin finished seventh in the Constructors Standings last season, finishing behind Red Bull Racing, Mercedes, Scuderia Ferrari, Alpine, McLaren and Alfa Romeo. However, they have made a significant improvement to this year’s AMR23 and Alonso now looks like a candidate to win his first Grand Prix since 2013 in Spain. Speaking ahead of qualification, Alonso said “I am not thinking that high. I don’t know exactly what position would be a good one for us. It is not the same fighting for 12th, 14th as for the top five, because the pressure and adrenaline is different. So there are a lot of things we as a team have to bring together in this process.
“I expect we will unfortunately make some mistakes. I may make some mistakes. It is a completely new team, new procedures. We have to be with our feet on the ground. The target has to be fighting for the championship in the long term; I don’t think this year. After testing we were thinking of being in Q3 with both cars scoring as many points as possible in the first couple of races and trying not to make mistakes.
“It (the car) felt good, obviously it is good to see the times that we are competitive, after testing there is always mixed feelings as to where you are. At the moment, we are just concentrating on ourselves. There are still some things to improve on the car. The balance was not completely perfect and the team had to change quite a few things. We are trying to reinforce every area of the team and we try to regroup everything and be the strongest team possible.”
Last year’s runner up Charles Leclerc was fourth fastest while Lewis Hamilton finished in eighth place. The seven time World Champion continues to struggle after a disappointing 2022 season with Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas, Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and Pierre Gasly’s Alpine filling in the gaps ahead of Hamilton. McLaren’s Lando Norris was ninth ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu. Mercedes’ George Russell ended up in 13th place while Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was 14th after making an error in the fastest lap. The soft compound was the preferred choice for all the teams and it’s likely that every team will feature it at the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Also read: Here’s everything that you need to look out for in the 2023 Formula 1 season
