Alonso staying positive

Alonso: Qualified down in 10th

SKY SPORTS ON SKY
From football to fishing and everything in between, including cricket, rugby, golf and tennis - there's some amazing coverage coming up on the five Sky Sports channels. Plus, with the launch of Sky Sports News HD this summer, all five channels will soon be available in stunning high definition, only with Sky. Click here for more

Related links

Teams

• Ferrari

Drivers

• Fernando Alonso

Also see

• Circuit guides
• Driver profiles
• Live coverage
• £5 Free Bet

Fernando Alonso thinks the unpredictable weather conditions seen so far during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend could help him during the race after a poor qualifying session.

The Ferrari driver will line up only 10th on the grid at Spa, his worst qualifying performance for six races and not what he would have wanted following a recent surge in form.

Alonso currently stands fifth in the world championship and those drivers ahead of him in the standings all did a better job during qualifying on Saturday.

Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton mirror their positions in the title race as they will start first and second, with Red Bull and McLaren team-mates Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button fourth and fifth.

However, Alonso is reconciling himself with the prospect of more rain falling during the race - one the Spaniard thinks could turn into a lottery that will make grid positions less relevant.

"Obviously I can't be pleased with this result, but it has to be said if there is one track where grid position is less critical than others, then it is this one," said Alonso, who was fastest during Friday's practice sessions.

"That is because of the track characteristics and because the weather can be very changeable.

"In some cases the right decision at the right time can see you make up an advantage of a minute, therefore we will have to be clever and make the most of every opportunity.

"So there's no point in making a drama over this 10th place. We must stay calm and concentrated.

"Qualifying is one thing and the race is quite another because that is when the points are given out, not today."

Explaining his qualifying result, Alonso added: "In Q3, I only had one set of new soft tyres left and I used it on my second run when, unfortunately, there was a bit of rain."

Difficult

With team-mate Felipe Massa sixth, team principal Stefano Domenicali made it clear he was far from happy with the result.

"Qualifying was complicated by the changing weather conditions which might have been easy to predict from yesterday," said Domenicali.

"But having said that, clearly we failed to extract all the potential at our disposal and now we have to understand why.

"We are expecting a difficult race tomorrow when it will be important to try and make the most of every opportunity, especially as our main rivals will be starting ahead of us."