Fernando Alonso has had a day to forget in America when issues restricted his running in the practice session, and then a mix of traffic and a lack of pace, led to a P17 finish and a Q1 exit, just left a sour taste in his mouth.
Alonso tells it as it is to the media
"It's been a pretty bad day overall," Alonso said when speaking to DAZN Spain after he finished his running on a Friday. "Free Practice was one to forget, with problems on both cars, front brakes on fire, my team-mate couldn't do any laps, I only did six or seven quality laps. And now in Q1 we had a very bad traffic. I went out, I think I passed the finish line with one second to go before the red flag. I started the lap very close to the car in front. But still, the lap was good and I had no big problems with the car, we were not fast enough."
He continued: "We had a terrible session. With a new package, there are always too many unknowns in terms of how they work. I think we went blind into qualifying and obviously we see the results."
The veteran had already ruled out any chances of a successful Sunday. "Sunday's race is already a bit of a compromise coming from so far back", but he is optimistic for the extra competitive sessions brought by the Sprint Weekend. "Let's see if on Saturday we can do a good time trial and a good sprint and at least have a good Saturday."