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Fernando Alonso claims he was surprised to find out that Mercedes' George Russell managed to set the fastest lap time in Saturday's qualifying session for the 2022 F1 Hungarian GP.
Mercedes had a disappointing start to the weekend at the Hungaroring with an underwhelming Friday through both free practice sessions. Ferrari's Carlos Sainz appeared to comfortably secure pole this weekend after consistently remaining on top of the charts until the very last minute when the Briton drove an unbelievable final flying lap to secure his maiden pole position.
In a post-qualifying media interaction ahead of the 2022 F1 Hungarian GP, Fernando Alonso claimed that while he was certainly shocked to see Russell on pole, he was happy for the Mercedes driver. He said:
“I just found out now because on the radio I didn’t understand who was on pole. I’m surprised for sure [but] happy for him. [It was] unexpected because Ferrari looked very strong and Max as well so Mercedes were struggling a little bit. We were thinking we could be in front of them, in fact we are in front of Lewis [Hamilton], so to see him in pole position, it has to be a great lap. I am looking forward to watching it.”
Speaking about his expectations from the upcoming race, the Spaniard added:
“I was the only one switching the intermediates on so I had a fantastic day wet and dry. I think tomorrow is going to be a long race, [with] some traffic in front of us that maybe we are a little bit faster than. There are some very fast cars behind us – [Max] Verstappen, [Sergio] Perez and Lewis, if he doesn’t pass us at the start – so it is going to be an interesting race because there are a couple of cars out of position.”
Alpine had a strong qualifying session at the Hungaroring on Saturday. Both cars are set to start the race in the top six, with last year's winner Esteban Ocon starting in fifth and Fernando Alonso in sixth. Meanwhile, Red Bull had a rather underwhelming qualifying, with both drivers ultimately setting the tenth and eleventh-fastest lap times.
Fernando Alonso hoping to head to the summer break after strong weekend at 2022 F1 Hungarian GP
With both Alpines on the third row ahead of the 2022 F1 Hungarian GP, Fernando Alonso hopes to "maximize" the strong pace that the team has been able to maintain all weekend before heading into the summer break with momentum.
In a post-qualifying media interaction, the Alpine driver said:
“Yes, it was a very strong Saturday for us in both conditions, wet and dry. And I mean the Q3 was very windy, probably surprised me a little bit, not having the same timed lap of Q2, which remains the fastest for me, strangely. It was tight, but let’s see tomorrow if we can maximise this position. We seem fast – let’s see if we can repeat a good strong weekend, score points with both cars and go into the break with a good taste.”
The Hungaroring is known to be a good track when it comes to defense, which should give Alpine some confidence this weekend when it comes to keeping the top runners at bay.
