Alonso not worried about tomorrow: 'Sprint race means nothing"

After another positive start to the season behind the wheel of the Aston Martin, it was a disappointing day for Fernando Alonso. The 42-year-old sits on 31 points so far this season after six races, but during sprint qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix, Alonso could only manage P8 and was out-qualified by his teammate Lance Stroll in P7

Alonso on tomorrow's race: 'We cannot fight or anything like that'

For the Spaniard, it is not very often that he is out-qualified by his Canadian teammate. However, around the Miami International Autodrome, Alonso could not find the pace that he has shown with Aston Martin so far in 2024, and he hopes to improve his pace for the sprint race on Saturday.

But speaking to Sky Sports after qualifying P8, Alonso seems to think that there won't be many opportunities during tomorrow's race after a tough qualifying session. "It was difficult, for sure," said the Spaniard. "It was difficult to read the grip on the track. And, yes, you said changing the tyre compound from the medium to the softs at the end was difficult too. But it is the same for everybody. I think we put both cars in Q3, which was the target. Let's see tomorrow."

Alonso also said that he did not know what the Aston Martin could do during its longruns, which was not helped by only having one practice session all weekend. "Obviously, we didn't do any long run in FP1 anyway. The sprint race means nothing, especially because we cannot fight or anything like that. We receive penalties for whatever we do. Tomorrow is a day for fun, but not for us. Not very interesting."

After his interview, former World Champion and competitor Jenson Button spoke about Alonso and said, "You always know when Fernando has been out-qualified by his teammate," picking up on the Spaniard's mood. Button was then asked, "Did you like it when you outqualified him?", to which he responded, "I loved it. It didn't happen often, but I loved it.”