Alonso pins hope on start and first corner

By Jay
August 1 2010

Fernando Alonso is baffled at the pace of the Red Bull cars, and pins all his hopes now on the race start.

"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.

He had lost the pole position in Hockenheim, Germany, last weekend by 0.002 seconds, however, yesterday the gap on the pole sitter Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull was 1.2 seconds, which is way to off the pace by Ferrari in just one week.

The Hungarian track though is suited to Ferrari's F10, there are not much heavy braking zones, an area where the Red Bulls are vulnerable.

Most importantly, the tracks offers almost no overtaking opportunity except at the start and the first corner, hence the good start is of utmost importance.

Alonso, who starts 3rd and on the cleaner side of the track, hopes to overtake atleast one of the Red Bull, and keep pressure on the other.

"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."

"We are pleased with this result because it is the most we could reasonably have expected from this qualifying session," team boss Stefano Domenicali said.

"Certainly the gap to the top is very significant and it's incredible to see how the picture can change in the space of one week: from a gap of two thousandths, we have gone to 1.2 seconds on the same tyres and with almost identical cars to those raced in Germany."

Alonso also delved on the positive aspect with regards to his championship challenge.

"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."

With the next two races being Spa and Monza, that suits well for Red Bull and McLaren with fast sweeping corners, it is important that Ferrari, especially Alonso gets a good result here.