Fernando Alonso will start the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix from the pit lane as his Aston Martin team decided to make further set-up changes to his car.
A poor qualifying session originally left Alonso on the back row of the grid for today’s race alongside Williams driver Logan Sargeant.
Aston Martin have made changes to the set-up of Alonso’s suspension. It therefore no longer complies with the ‘parc ferme’ rules which restrict what teams may do to the cars, and must start from the pit lane. Sargeant will move up to 19th place on the grid.
Alonso’s preparations for qualifying were disrupted when he crashed halfway through the final practice session. He hit a barrier at the second Rivazza turn, damaging the right-rear corner of his car.
Although his mechanics were able to repair the AMR24 in time for Q1, Alonso endured a scruffy session and went off again at Tamburello, this time without crashing. He was unable to improve on the first time he set with a relatively high fuel load and failed to reach Q2 for the first time this year.
“It was one of those days where everything went a bit wrong for us,” Alonso reflected. “It started with the heavy crash in FP3 and the mechanics did a great job in getting the car ready for Q1.
“We headed out for qualifying a few minutes into the session and fuelled to do all of Q1. The best lap I managed was when the car was heavier with fuel and then we had to box for an issue at the end of the session just before my final attempt. The car felt quite good in qualifying and I think there was some more pace in hand, so it was a shame we couldn’t improve my lap time.”
Aston Martin introduced a substantial upgrade for its car this weekend including a new front wing, revised floor and changes to the rear suspension and bodywork.
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2024 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix
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