“It hurts a little when I’m two-tenths from pole position.”

Alonso finished a happy sixth place on the grid for the Canadian Grand Prix, although he regretted being two tenths off pole due to a less-than-perfect lap. “A little bit of everything. The starting position is good, after the last two races in which I dropped out in the first quarter, the race is almost over. Now we are sixth and ninth, we have the opportunity to gain points. But it was a difficult classification due to the wind changing direction, and drops of rain. Nobody drove a perfect lap, that was my case too, I didn’t do everything perfectly in the third quarter. So when you see that you are two tenths from pole, it hurts a little, but it was the same for everyone,” he commented as he got out of the car after qualifying in Montreal.

On his final lap in Q3: “In Turn 2 I had so much oversteer and I lost the car so much that I was close to aborting the lap and then I was sixth. So those two tenths might already be on that curve. After that I rode very aggressively to recover, but it was difficult. This weekend the car drove a little better, and on Friday I already noticed more confidence. The race will be about managing tires with unknowns, and if it rains, it will be one of those races where if you stop a lap early or late in the middle, your race will be over.”

Aston Martin looks better in Canada, at Stroll’s home. They have revived the Imola aero package, a theoretical development, and it seems they are at least able to extract a bit more performance from them after suffering in Italy and Monaco. “We have a forecast after the first nine races. We were hoping for a slightly better weekend, it’s been that way since Friday and now we can face the challenges and try to be competitive. Race after race we saw how quickly things changed. Ferrari goes from dominating Monaco to crashing out of Q3. It’s hard to make a reservation or be sure that we will be in Barcelona in the third quarter. No one can guarantee this,” Alonso explained.