It has been a challenging season for Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin, but it looks set to end on a high at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The Spaniard started off the weekend on the backfoot when he complained to his Aston Martin team that the AMR24 was the “worst car” he’d driven.
Alonso is known for his outbursts over team radio, having famously referred to his Honda engine while at McLaren as a ‘GP2 engine’ when racing at the Japanese GP and unable to make progress due to its lack of power.
Aston Martin worked wonders overnight to get his car into a better working window for qualifying, with Alonso managing to make it into Q3 and qualify in eighth place.
The Spaniard has claimed that 2024 has been his best year for qualifying in his career when speaking to Marca.com, having made it through to Q3 in a car that was not always capable.
Fernando Alonso rates his 2024 F1 qualifying performance
Alonso is known for being a great qualifier in F1 that can extract the most out of a car, and this year has been no exception for the two-time world champion.
His highest qualifying position was fifth place at the Saudi Arabian GP, while he also achieved 13 top 10 starts in 2024.
READ MORE: All to know about Aston Martin F1 Team from team principal to lineage
Alonso believes this has been one of his strongest years in terms of qualifying and has rated it compared to other seasons.
“16 out of 24 times in Q3, with the car we have this year I think it shows that it must be my best season as a qualifier, if I voted, I would certainly give myself the prize,” said Alonso.
Fernando Alonso versus Lance Stroll in qualifying head to head
Qualifying between the two Aston Martin drivers has been a one-sided affair this year, with Alonso outclassing teammate Lance Stroll.
The Spaniard has the joint fourth largest margin this year with 19-5 to Stroll, which is the exact same as the two Mercedes drivers with George Russell outqualifying Lewis Hamilton.
| Drivers | Margin |
| Verstappen and Perez | 23-1 |
| Bottas and Zhou | 21-3 |
| Norris and Piastri | 20-4 |
| Alonso and Stroll | 19-5 |
| Russell and Hamilton | 19-5 |
| Hulkenberg and Magnussen | 16-6 |
| Leclerc and Sainz | 14-9 |
| Ocon and Gasly | 13-10 |
| Tsunoda and Lawson | 6-0 |
| Albon and Colaptinto | 7-2 |
Only Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri (20-4), Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu (21-3), and then Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez (21-1) have larger qualifying head-to-head margins.
Stroll will likely be hoping he can close that margin in 2025, as he looks to improve his form after a lacklustre 2024 season.
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