Aston Martin stunned by Fernando Alonso’s ‘spectacular’ result in Canadian GP Sprint qualifying

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Aston Martin had very few expectations coming into the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, but Fernando Alonso pulled off an incredible result.

Alonso managed to secure P16 during the Canadian Sprint qualifying, and in doing so, secured Aston Martin’s first SQ2 appearance this season.

The Spanish driver managed to be impressive throughout Friday. In fact, Alonso even finished top 10 in FP1, showing a stark improvement for Aston Martin.

While Alonso made it to SQ2 partly on the back of his errant crash during SQ1, it still marks Aston Martin’s best performance in any qualifying period this year.

In fact, it was a result even the most optimistic of officials within Aston Martin would not have predicted, with Pedro de la Rosa being proven wrong in the best way possible.

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Pedro de la Rosa predicted ‘little’ improvement in qualifying, but Fernando Alonso proved him wrong

Speaking to DAZN Spain prior to the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, Aston Martin ambassador Pedro de La Rosa said that Aston Martin’s improvement would only be clear during the actual race

He also praised the work that Honda had put in when it came to the power unit that made the car easier to drive.

“There will be little in qualifying, but much more in the race, because energy recovery goes from six megajoules in qualifying to eight in the race.

“Honda has worked a lot on handling, which refers to the shifting and how the gears engage, as well as how the engine torque is delivered in each shift, to make each downshift as smooth as possible.”

What de la Rosa didn’t take into consideration was how well Fernando Alonso would manage the situation. In fact, de la Rosa wasn’t sure how much of their entry into SQ2 was down to the AMR26.

“The car performed better than we expected. The result is spectacular given the current level of competition… We don’t know how much of this is due to the car and how much is due to Fernando.”

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Fernando Alonso believes Aston Martin still lack the pace needed to compete

Speaking after his crash in SQ1, Alonso quelled any excitement over his performance, suggesting that his finish was far beyond expectations of where Aston Martin are this season.

“We’re very far behind, and we simply don’t have the pace… I was running P14, probably seven or eight positions higher than where we actually belong.

“I locked the front tyres, and from that point I was just a passenger. And at a place like Canada, there’s nowhere to go. I was right on the limit.”

Aston Martin are still in pre-season testing mode, managing to learn new things about their car’s performance each day, much like most other teams did before the season started.

And with Honda being bailed out by F1 teams, allowing them to exceed the cost-cap to address these issues, they have no choice but to get the AMR26 power unit ready as soon as possible.