Fernando Alonso says McLaren's midfield grid slots "a nice surprise"
Saturday 19 March 2016 12:04, UK
Fernando Alonso says McLaren's form has proved a "nice surprise" at the Australian GP after the team secured arguably their most convincing qualifying result since reuniting with Honda.
McLaren arrived in Melbourne amid low-key expectations but the MP4-31 ran in and around the top 10 in practice, before Alonso and Jenson Button qualified 12th and 13th - the team's best joint grid slots in the dry since last May's Monaco GP.
While the car was still 1.5 seconds adrift of Mercedes in Q2, McLaren's best lap was a massive five seconds quicker than they managed in qualifying at Albert Park last year when F1's once dominant force propped up the grid.
They were also within four tenths of a second of Force India, who finished four places above them in last year's Constructors' Championship.
Alonso described the new car as an "obvious step forward" from the end of last season, when he experienced a series of troubled races to cap a forgettable year.
"I'm happy with the car and I'm enjoying the weekend. I was able to enjoy driving in free practice, a trouble-free weekend for us so far," he said.
"It was a very positive step for us and coming back from last year [when] in Mexico I was not able to participate in the race because we had a problem on the formation lap, in Brazil I was in that [deck] chair more time than on the track, and then in Abu Dhabi I started at the back and ran alone all the race.
"So I came here in Q1 I was third with two sets of supersofts, but in Q2 with the first attempt with everybody on new tyres at the same time I was 10th, 1.2 seconds off the Mercedes'. So definitely a nice surprise."
Alonso said that the team should be happy with their winter's work, but is aware they are still a long way from achieving their ultimate ambitions.
"We came out from Barcelona not knowing how the performance was with this car and we were happy and surprised, but still a long way to go," Alonso stressed.
"We don't want to be 12th and 13th, we want to be first and second, and for that it's the biggest step of all when you need to find the last step of performance.
"But a starting point that makes us happy and proud of the team of how they developed the car over the winter."
The first race of the 2016 F1 season, the Australian GP, is exclusively live on Sky Sports F1. The race in Melbourne starts at 5am on Sunday.
