Japanese GP: Alonso and Ferrari are unlucky

Fernando Alonso et Ferrari had a different strategy for the final phase of the qualifying session. Unlike his main rivals, the Iberian driver decided to complete a single stint at the wheel of his F2012 in Q3. However, his timed lap was disrupted by yellow flags being waved following Räikkönen's spin into Spoon.

« What can I say other than that I'm sorry I was unlucky? The yellow flags came at the worst time as I was approaching the 14th turn, explains the double Spanish world champion. Before that, my lap was very good and I had a good chance of setting the 4th time, which would have allowed me to start from 3rd place on the starting grid. From there my race would have been very different, but we have to accept what happened. We were unlucky today, but maybe we will be lucky tomorrow! We face formidable competitors such as Red Bull, which are before us, but also the McLaren, who are last of us. So we're going to have to keep an eye on both sides of the track. I'm expecting a difficult Sunday. Our goal is to finish the race, reliability is so important, and to score points. We changed a few things on the car, but after FP3 we went back to our basic settings because I wasn't convinced by these changes. I am more optimistic for tomorrow?s race than I was today because our pace on Sunday is often better than on a lap. »