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Formula 1 Russian GP
Alonso confident McLaren pace is real
Fernando Alonso is optimistic that McLaren's strong form in practice for the Russian Grand Prix is real, and that sights are firmly set on getting into Q3.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Apr 30, 2016, 12:05 PM
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Although the team had talked ahead of the weekend of McLaren's strong runs in previous Fridays having not been carried forward in to qualifying and the race, Alonso senses things are different this time.
"To be close to Q3 would be good news for us, and if we can fit at least one car in Q3 that would be even better," explained the Spaniard who ended up 10th overall in second practice, two places behind Jenson Button.
"It's possible, we know that results on Friday sometimes look a little bit too optimistic for us, and then [on Saturday] we struggle a little bit more, but the car felt good.
"It's not 100 percent, I think there's still room to improve in terms of set-up, but there is a little bit more to come. Let's see if that's enough to get into Q3."
When asked about how optimistic he was of delivering his best qualifying result of the season, he said: "If we manage to improve the problems we had with a bit of an unbalanced car in different corners, and maximise the power that we probably didn't use all of today.
"If we put everything together and make the tyre work, which was the key factor, to get the tyres up to temperature for the lap you wanted, then I think it's very possible."
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