Alonso: P2 was possible even with “completely destroyed” floor

Alonso suffered an off at the final corner during the early stages of Q1.

He sustained some significant floor damage as a result, leaving Aston Martin trying to fix it during the remainder of qualifying.

Alonso went on to qualify only ninth - his worst result of the season as he was out-qualified by teammate Lance Stroll for the first time in F1 2023.

Speaking after the session, Alonso revealed - like Lewis Hamilton - he made a mistake at Turn 10 which cost him a shot at qualifying second behind Max Verstappen.

“In the Q3 lap I was coming for 1m12.7s, until Turn 10, that again I ran wide into the damp part on the outside,” Alonso explained.

“So when I saw now that 1m12.7s is P2 and P3, I was surprised.

“That’s why I’m optimistic for tomorrow because the car seems to have a lot of pace.”

Reflecting on his Q1 error, he explained: “Q1 probably did compromise everything today. I did a mistake, I went on the damp part of the circuit, I guess, in the last corner because I lost the car, and then it was very costly because that gravel completely destroyed the floor.

“And yeah, it hurts even more because it’s the out-lap, I wasn’t even pushing. It was not a push lap, it was the out-lap.

“So, yeah, disappointed with my performance today. Hopefully I can do a better Sunday.”

It was an unusual qualifying session in Spain as Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes all had just one car in the final shootout for pole.

Alonso described Saturday at Barcelona as “strange”.

“It was a strange qualifying – to see [Charles] Leclerc out of Q1, [Sergio] Perez, [George] Russell out of Q2, we were struggling as well,” he added.

“So, I think it was tricky for everyone but in my case it was just my mistake, in the out-lap of Q1, that compromises everything.

“But the race is tomorrow, the car still felt competitive even with some damage on the floor.”