Alonso felt he could have joined fight for pole

Fernando Alonso felt he had the pace in his Alpine to challenge for pole position at the Australian Grand Prix before a hydraulic failure put him in the wall.

The Spaniard had shown strong pace throughout Q1 and Q2, proving the class of the midfield, but come Q3 his opening flying lap was on course to potentially put him in among the scrap between Ferrari and Red Bull over pole.

Sadly though, that lap for Alonso came to an end when he went off at Turn 11 and hit the wall.

The damage was terminal from the impact of the crash. But as Alonso later suggested over team radio, a hydraulic failure had caused the crash and so with the gearbox, engine and power steering broken it would have been curtains for his pole chances even if he had avoided the wall.

It marked the latest frustration for Alonso, who has been blighted by reliability problems in the early stages of this season, with that hydraulic problem following on from a water pump failure which forced him to retire from the previous race in Saudi Arabia while also putting him on his third and final permitted Internal Combustion Engine for the season.

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He had just set the fastest middle sector of all, but his crash pauses the clock with seven minutes to go #AusGP #F1