Aston Martin struggles in the slow corners of the Sakhir circuit

« Great job today! We couldn't have done better, thank you all." His words are those that Fernando Alonso shared with his engineer following his qualification in… 13th position. If the Spaniard is so satisfied with this result, it is because he did not expect it, at the wheel of his Aston Martin, to reach Q2.

« It's been a difficult weekend so far, our performances weren't as good as in Japan or China, declared the double world champion. I think Q2 was definitely our best. 13th is a much higher position than our pace had shown so far."

Absent in EL1 because replaced by Felipe Drugovich, then victim of a recalcitrant steering wheel during EL2, depriving Fernando Alonso of a good part of the session, the Iberian only had FP3 to adapt to his car and the Middle Eastern circuit. However, these difficulties did not discourage Aston Martin, who expected the fourth meeting of the season to be tricky.

« Slow corners are our weakness at the start of the year and the Sakhir circuit has several of them so we expected the weekend to be complicated and unfortunately, our fears have been confirmed so far,” said the Oviedo native.

In 2025, Fernando Alonso's points tally is still at zero. He hopes that this will increase at the Sakhir circuit: Tire management will be key so I'll try to play it smart and be close to opportunities."

Bad settings on Stroll's single-seater

If the two-time world champion is satisfied with a thirteenth place, it logically means that his teammate is behind, a recurrence for the Greens. After his 20th place in qualifying in Japan, Lance stroll improved in Bahrain and will start 19th. However, this umpteenth poor performance is not entirely his responsibility, his team having poorly adjusted its car.

« I expected better today but we had problems with the height of the car, confided the Canadian. We will see what we can do tomorrow."

« We completely missed Lance's car today, revealed Mike Krack, Gaydon's team manager. The ride height setting was incorrect, which created high levels of understeer and this cost him a significant loss on lap times.

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