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Alonso ‘surprised’ by gap to Red Bull

Ferrari man Fernando Alonso was shocked to find himself so far behind the pace setting Red Bull’s today in qualifying for Sunday’s F1 2010 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Alonso had a good qualifying session and just like in the practice he was the only one anywhere near Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. However, despite finishing Q3 in third place, he was disappointed to be so far off P1.

Indeed in the end his best lap, a 1 minute 19.987 seconds, was 1.2 seconds off the pole – and over eight tenths off second, quite a surprise, especially as he had been just 0.002 seconds off the top spot in Germany last weekend, although admittedly the Hungaroring is a rather different challenge to Hockenheim.

“I am pleased with my qualifying lap and with the performance of our car, as I don’t think I could have done better today. The Red Bulls proved to be very strong and the gap to them is certainly a surprise,” Alonso said.

“Having said that, we have to remain focussed on our work and try to do the maximum, aiming at getting on the podium. We must bear in mind that the leaders in both championships are behind us on the grid and our aim is to make up ground on their points total.

“The start will be very important. Usually at this track, starting on the clean side brings a clear advantage, but this year we have seen good starts from the dirty side and bad ones from the clean: it will be vital to do everything as well as possible and then we will see where we are at the end of the first lap. At that point we can also decide whether to have an attacking race or to manage the situation.”

Team-mate Felipe Massa also went well in qualifying and while he was around three tenths slower in the sister F10, he still did enough to take fourth and ensure the Scuderia locked-out the second row.

“When you are gapped by over a second in qualifying, there is always something to think about: the way in which they [Red Bull] make their tyres work on the first lap is especially incredible and their aerodynamics help them so much in some corners, especially in changes of direction,” Massa continued. “In the race though, the situation can be different, but clearly we cannot claim that we will be quicker on track.

“However, overall, we have to be pleased with this result because, all the same, we are ahead of everyone else. I did not produce a perfect lap: with these tyres you have to drive extremely precisely because you can easily run the risk of going off the ideal line. The start will be very important and, unfortunately, I am on the dirty side of the grid: let’s see what we can do. The race will be very long and as always, anything can happen.”

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Alonso: Row hasn’t diverted Ferrari focus

Taken from here

Fernando Alonso says Ferrari has not been distracted by the ongoing team orders controversy and is instead fully focussed on ensuring it keeps the performance momentum up from its Hockenheim 1-2 in Hungary.

The Italian squad has been in the centre of a media storm since Felipe Massa moved aside to let Alonso win last Sunday’s race and has faced a barrage of criticism from drivers and team principals at rival squads for clearly breaking the team orders regulations.

Alonso remained largely tight-lipped about the incident in his pre-race press briefing at the Hungaroring on Thursday, simply insisting that both he and the team were only thinking about how to perform strongly this weekend after its resounding display in Germany.

“Hungary is our main target now,” he told reporters.

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Happy 29th Brithday Fernando

Dear Fernando

Happy Birthday dear hope you have a good birthday and a good race at the Hungaroring! Please make it one worth watching!

Anyway have a good one and don’t eat to much cake

Love

Claire x

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German GP Preview – Fernando Alonso

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOO Sorry about not posting a lot lately personal life is getting in the way again! Always check out facebook for any instant updates thanks!

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Alonso accepts British GP penalty

A calm Alonso, who had been angry in the previous race because of the safety car controversy, said that he accepted the penalty.

“I accept everything they do. They are the judges,” Alonso told Spanish television after the race.

Ferrari made a reference to the European Grand Prix controversy in its official Twitter account, suggesting Lewis Hamilton should have been punished then like Alonso was today.

“You can just say one thing: if a penalty must be punishing it must be always like this,” said the Italian team.

The result left Alonso 47 points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton, but the Spaniard insisted the title is still within reach.

“This is just the halfway point of the season, so all the points that we have lost in this first half is because we haven’t done things as well as the others,” he said.

“So in the second half of the championship we are going to try to do better than the others and recover one point more than what they have now.

“The season is very long and we are not going to give up.”

read the whole thing at Autosports

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Fernando comes third at Silverstone

Excellent work of Fernando Alonso in qualifying the British Grand Prix. Having demonstrated both Friday and Saturday morning that could be close to RedBull or at least try to be the best car after them, Fernando returned to realize those feelings and was third on the grid tomorrow.

In Q1, Fernando was third, earning a time of 1.30.997, repeated that position in Q2, but improving his time to 1.30.700. The best came in Q3, when he won 1.30.426, but on all three occasions was third behind the RedBull. Once finished the day’s work, analyzed in this way what happened:

“We knew that in this type of circuit, the RedBull could be out of reach, but we could lead the rest of the pack. We also know that improving our performance, but thanks to the work we have done in recent weeks, there are positive indications about the improvements we made to the car ”

“In my final run fast, I had traffic in sector three, but even if he had had a clear track ahead of me, I do not think he would have improved my position”

“In the race we will do everything possible to finish on the podium, because we need to score lots of points. In terms of performance, we have demonstrated that we are fast on long runs and we can try to embarrass the RedBull and not leaving them to take the win easily. “