Fernando Alonso was ecstatic with his first Pole Position, in over a year, in Hungary. The former double-World Champion shocked everyone with his pace in qualifying and used an aggressive strategy to climb to the top of the timesheets.
Alonso is now confident of challenging for a podium for tomorrow’s race and paid tribute to his team for their efforts.
However Nelson Piquet could not replicate his teammate’s stunning performance as he was eliminated in Q2.
Fernando Alonso – 1st: “The result this afternoon is fantastic. We knew after Germany that we were more competitive and that the car has really improved with our latest updates, so we decided to take an aggressive strategy this weekend. Tomorrow, our aim is to finish on the podium and starting from pole position gives us a good chance of doing that. Also, with three Renault engines filling the first three places on the grid, it’s another demonstration of the superb work done by the whole team.”
Nelson Piquet – 15th: “I knew that qualifying was going to be difficult. I managed to get a good lap in Q1, but in Q2 there was a lot of traffic and I couldn’t repeat the lap time, so unfortunately I missed out on Q3. Tomorrow it’s vital that we make a good start and I will do my best to have a strong race.”
Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering: “I think after Germany we regained a lot of confidence in the car and the developments we had made to it. We therefore came here intending to go racing aggressively and by taking pole position we have accomplished the first part of our task. We now need to translate that into a good, solid finish tomorrow, hopefully on the podium.”
