The Aston Martin driver believes he can compete for the rest behind McLaren in qualifying at the Dutch Grand Prix despite Lance Stroll’s actual crash drop.
The walk hit the barrier outside the bank corner and pulled out the red flag of FP2 before causing a violent crash on turn 3 on turn 3. He lost on a fairly high fuel run, but Stroll suggests that Fernando Alonso’s second fastest lap time could be featured near the front on Saturday, Stroll says.
“It’s all good,” the walk said of his fitness after the crash. “We had a little lock-up and from there I was a passenger.
“I think we’ll be competitive all day long, and once again, Fernando is in FP2 now, so I think we’ll be in a good place and see what we can do tomorrow.
“I think it looks like (the first few lines are out of reach). That’s certainly what it looks like.”
Stroll and Alonso are third and fourth faster respectively on the FP1 behind the two McLaren drivers, and Alonso says they have good signs for repeated strong performances in Hungary.
“It’s certainly a little more optimistic than the other Fridays we did,” Alonso said. “Hungary has become stronger with us and now we’re heading to the next race at Zandvaort, but we’re still showing good pace with free practice. We know that it’s just free practice, but let’s look at our times and see what we can do tomorrow.
“I don’t think it’s out of our reach to fight McLaren, but perhaps some of the top teams like Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull seem to be far away.
But what’s more important for Alonso is the positive trend that Aston Martin knows how to optimize the latest upgrade packages at venues that suit the car.
“No doubt,” he said. “Unfortunately, we’re not fighting for big big things, so the main focus for the rest of the season is to understand what we’re doing in the factory and translate those learnings into tracks.
“So this gives us great confidence in what we’re trying to do now next winter, knowing what we’re doing with our tools and what we’re doing with our factories, and if possible, we should translate it into the Barcelona test next year.”
