Formula One news

Alonso: Qualifying not easy

Fernando Alonso said it was not easy challenging for pole position in Q3 after seeing his team-mate Lewis Hamilton veer off the track and into the tyre barrier. The session was stopped five minutes before the end after Hamilton crashed into the tyre barrier with a tyre failure.

The team was then worried for the Spaniard as it emerged a fault on the MP4-22 might have caused the shunt. It turned out that the tyre gun had failed and had not secured Hamilton's front right tyre correctly. The session resumed after almost half an hour with Kimi Raikkonen going fastest after Alonso made a mistake on his last flying lap, which might have prevented him from getting pole.

Alonso said: "I lost the rear going into turn five and continued to oversteer for 50 to 60 metres on the approach to turn six. From that moment, I thought pole position was lost - maybe I could get fifth or sixth at the most. So I was very happy and surprised to see I was second."

When asked about seeing Hamilton's crash on TV, the reigning world champion said: "It is never easy, more so that it happened to a car from your team. But this is motor racing, you just have to keep going and get on with your job.

"It is not nice sitting there because you lose momentum and concentration. It makes qualifying a little more stressful."

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