Bahrain GP: Fernando Alonso revels Alpine relief after top 10 spot in qualifying

Alpine driver Fernando Alonso has said that it is a relief to be fighting for a top 10 spot in qualifying from the off and that now it’s time for the team to knuckle down and try and close the gap to the leaders.

A long-awaited first qualifying session of the new Formula 1 season took place on Saturday afternoon ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, with it the first time we could really see which teams were on top, and which teams had work to do.

Certainly, Ferrari and Red Bull are looking the strongest, whilst the likes of Mercedes, Haas, Alfa Romeo and Alpine appear potentially the next quickest.

It’s still early days, of course, and there is more work for each team to do over the coming weeks and months, but Alonso has said that he is relieved the team has a decent starting point to work from, with him set to line up in P8 for this afternoon’s race:

“To be fighting for the top 10 with both cars has been a relief a little bit for Alpine that the job done during the winter has been positive,” Alonso told the media post-qualy.

“Now it’s up to us to develop the car as quick as possible. It’s going to be a huge development for everybody and we need to be fast off-track, as well as on it.

“We need to push the button now in the factories and try to make the new parts [come] to the circuit as soon as possible.

“There are good ideas already in the factory, but I think it’s the same for everybody with the new cars; we will see in the first couple of months big changes on the cars.

“We need to make them work and hopefully close that gap to pole position that is still too much – over one second.”

Certainly, it was a decent start for Alpine with Esteban Ocon lining up in 11th this afternoon and both drivers will be eager to try and