In the round-up: Fernando Alonso says he is still not fully comfortable despite taking eighth on the grid.
In brief
Alonso “not in a happy place yet”
Fernando Alonso says he is still not fully comfortable with his Aston Martin in Austin despite qualifying eighth on the grid for today’s US Grand Prix.
“I think it’s a good result, for sure,” Alonso said. “It has been a tough weekend so far in terms of feeling the car.
“We made set-up changes after FP1 and after the sprint race this morning. We’re still experimenting a little bit, so I’m not in a happy place yet. But the result is good. Hopefully it allow us to score some points tomorrow. That’s the target.”
Being out of sequence hurt Williams – Albon
Alexander Albon suspects that being out of sequence with many of their rivals at the end of Q1 contributed to both him and Williams team mate Franco Colapinto being knocked out of qualifying at the first hurdle.
“The biggest issue we faced was that I came out of the pit lane maybe a lap earlier than everyone else, so when we started our push lap, about nine cars had just come out,” Albon explained to the official F1 channel.
“I was overtaking a car almost every corner, and there was a lot of dirty air, which makes a big difference here.”
Alpine fined for unsafe release
Alpine have been handed a €5,000 (£4,166) fine after the US Grand Prix stewards found that Pierre Gasly was released in front of Max Verstappen towards the end of Q3 in a dangerous manner.
Verstappen had to take “significant evasive action” to avoid a collision, according to the stewards, necessitating the fine. Gasly will keep his seventh place on the grid for today’s race.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Links
Audi to be granted increased budget cap on entering F1 (BBC)
‘Formula 1 is to adjust its budget cap from 2026 to offset the costs of teams that operate in countries with higher salary levels, BBC Sport has learned. The move will help Audi’s attempts to become competitive when it enters F1 officially in just over a year’s time. Although it means Audi will operate to a higher headline budget-cap figure than rivals, the FIA believes the change will ensure that all teams are operating on a level playing field financially within the cap, given their specific circumstances.’
Toxic F1 season as Red Bull ‘cheat’ row with McLaren keeps tit-for-tat war raging (Telegraph)
‘We may or may not find out whether Red Bull were…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…