Alonso 11th and Vandoorne 12th as both McLarens miss out on Q3; Spaniard "in attacking mode" for race; Lights out at 6.10am Sunday
Monday 26 March 2018 08:46, UK
Fernando Alonso believes McLaren have "huge potential" in their car, but conceded 11th was what they deserved in Australian GP Qualifying.
McLaren, in their first race with their new Renault power units, had been hoping to reach Q3 but both Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, who was12th, missed out on that target.
However, both will rise a place on the starting grid with Valtteri Bottas set to take a five-place grid penalty after requiring a gearbox change following his heavy crash at the start of the top-10 shootout.
Hamilton storms to Australia pole
WATCH: Bottas crashes out in Q3
Alonso was just 0.148s off a spot in Q3 and, having stressed this weekend was likely to be McLaren's weakest as they continue to adapt to their new power unit, was content with the performance.
"It's what we deserve and I'm happy with it," the two-time world champion told Sky F1.
"I think we have huge potential to unlock in the car. We still have some issues before we unlock everything so I think in the next coming races we can look forward to the season very optimistic."
Having been amongst the backmarkers for much of the last three years with Honda power, Alonso feels McLaren can enter Sunday's race, which gets underway at 6.10am BST exclusively live on Sky Sports F1, with a different mindset.
"It's going to be a different race for us - more in attacking mode and it's going to be fun," he said.
"Especially if it rains tomorrow, it's going to be amazing for the show."
Sunday's race looks set to throw up a titanic battle to be 'best of the rest' with McLaren, Haas, Renault, Force India, Toro Rosso and Williams all having been covered by around a second in Friday's practice sessions.
Vandoorne is optimistic he and Alonso can gain places and be firmly in the mix for points.
"We are in reasonable shape for tomorrow, we had some good long-run pace and hopefully we can get some points," Vandoorne said.
"We're in that group with a few teams that are very, very close together. Hopefully we can make a little bit of a difference in the race tomorrow."
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