“We had the pace for the top three” – Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso was on the verge of the unthinkable at the Australian Grand Prix, after being just a handful of corners away from putting his car on provisional pole, until the Spaniard crashed into the wall ending his hopes of pole.

Alonso will start the race from tenth place at the Albert Park Circuit, despite being so close to a potential front-row start. The Spaniard has looked mighty all weekend and was unfortunate to crash during Qualifying Three. Footage shows though that the crash wasn’t his fault, after an issue with his car resulted in it halting mid-corner, leaving Alonso helpless as his A522 crashed into the wall.

The BWT Alpine F1 Team are investigating the issue that Alonso suffered and are hopeful of finding out what the problem was.

Alonso was left begging for some good luck, after suffering a stroke of bad luck at all three rounds now so far this season. Nevertheless, Alonso is confident of a points finish on Sunday.

“It seems we are very unlucky in these three races so far and to have this issue today in qualifying is a real shame. We had the pace for the top three or maybe even the front row today and on my Q3 lap I felt very fast. I’m not surprised to be this close to the leaders because we’ve been working hard as a team.

“Each weekend we have got better and better, so that is a positive. It’s been the best weekend for years for me personally, and it’s frustrating we weren’t able to deliver it today. Let’s see how the car is overnight and do our investigations. Hopefully we can aim to score some points tomorrow.”

“It hasn’t been the smoothest of days” – Esteban Ocon

On the other side of the garage, Esteban Ocon made it both Alpine’s in the top ten yet again. Unlike his team-mate, Ocon didn’t suffer from an issue during final qualifying and will start from eighth on the grid. The Frenchman’s best lap was a 1:19.061, just over a second behind pole-sitter Charles Leclerc.

Following Alonso’s crash, Ocon was feeling slightly underwhelmed after qualifying, the Frenchman was clearly disappointed for his team-mate.

“It’s a bittersweet result for us today. Having both cars into Q3 is a decent result but it’s a shame that Fernando could not complete his lap as he was on for a mega one. I know the team is looking into exactly what happened but he has shown great pace all weekend. On my side it hasn’t been the smoothest of days, but I need to be happy in the end with eighth.

“We’re in the fight for tomorrow, and that’s what matters. There’s definitely plenty of work to do and I know there is pace to find so we’ll be leaving no stone unturned to try and put everything together to maximise our race tomorrow.”