Alonso 5th on qualifying!


A great lap!

By role
March 6 2004

The Renault R24 of Fernando Alonso has showed its true potential today after qualifying in 5th place at today's qualifying session of the Australian GP. His teammate Jarno Trulli finished 9th, 0.6 seconds behind the Spaniard. The session was dominated by the Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello and their 1-2 was only put on threat during the first two sectors of Montoya's lap. Michael's time was of 1.24.408 and his teammate stopped the clock at 1.24.482.

However, a small mistake of the Colombian on the final third sector placed him 3rd on the grid tied on time with the BAR of Jenson Button, the surprise of this start of the season. Both drivers had a time of 1.24.998.

Alonso was fifth with a time of 1.25.669. The R24 suffers from a suspected lack of engine power similar to the one experienced with the R23 of last year.

Behind Alonso the Jaguar of Mark Webber and the BAR Honda of Takuma Sato followed in 8th by the BMW Williams of Ralf Schumacher who finished 1 second slower than his teammate.

With a best time of 1.26.290 Trulli was good for 9th and he was followed by the struggling McLaren-Mercedes of Kimi Raikkonen. His teammate Coulthard made several mistakes during his lap and will start 12th tomorrow at Albert Park. So far the MP19 has been a dissapointment.

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