Fernando Alonso has rejected the idea that he could start the Bahrain Grand Prix from pole position despite setting the pace in Friday’s practice.
The Aston Martin driver was 0.169s faster than world champion Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, with team-mate Sergio Perez third.
Alonso said: “I’m not thinking that high. I don’t know exactly what position would be good for us.”
The two-time champion also refused to fight for the world title in 2023.
Alonso, who moved to Aston Martin for this season after two years with the Alpine team, did both short, low-fuel runs and long runs with race-level fuel loads on the first practice day in the season-opening race. But they were fast.
He was fastest overall in one-off lap times, and was an average of 0.048 seconds slower than Verstappen – and faster than everyone else – on race simulation runs.
Alonso’s performance, if repeated in qualifying and the race, would be a dramatic step forward for Aston Martin, who finished seventh in the championship last season.
The 41-year-old two-time world champion – who has not won a race since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix, when he was driving for Ferrari – said: “It’s not the same fight for 12th, 14th as it is. For the top five. Because the pressure and the adrenaline are different. So in the process we have to put a lot of things together as a team.
“I expect we’ll make some mistakes unfortunately. Maybe I’ll make some mistakes. It’s a whole new team, new system.
“We have to stay with our feet on the ground. The goal is to fight for the championship in the long term; I don’t think this year.”
He said that, after last week’s pre-season testing session in Bahrain, Aston Martin knew they had made progress but were expecting to fight in the bottom of the top 10.
“After testing we were thinking about being in Q3 with both cars,” he said, “get as many points as possible in the first couple of races and try not to make a mistake.”
Aston Martin was expected to go one step further but Alonso’s performance was surprising – even for the team itself.
“It felt good,” Alonso said. “Obviously it’s good to see we’re competitive, there’s always mixed feelings after testing where you’re at.
“At the moment, we are just focusing on ourselves. There are still some things to improve in the car. The balance was not completely perfect and the team had to change some things. We have strengthened every area of the team. Trying to give.” And we try to reorganize everything and be the strongest team.”
