McLaren F1 driver Alonso puzzled by Dennis discussing sabbatical

The two-time world champion has voiced his frustration on occasions during a terrible year for McLaren-Honda, and before qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix .

But Alonso denied those claims, and when asked after qualifying if he could spend 2016 on the sidelines he said: "No.

"I will be on the grid. I have been answering the same question to all of your [media] colleagues.

"When Ron says something you have the perfect opportunity to clarify some of his quotes.

"I don't know what is the intention behind it or what he means, but of course we all want to improve.

"We want to put the car in winter testing [next year] to see how competitive we are and we are hoping for the best.

"This is a better question for Ron, for him to clarify. I have nothing to say.

"We have a tough winter in front of us improving the car and hopefully when we put the new McLaren on track it will be competitive enough and we will enjoy next year."

Alonso's team-mate Jenson Button missed out on a Q3 slot by less than two tenths of a second, .

However, Alonso was upbeat about McLaren's performance despite its top speed deficit compared to rival teams.

"The car has performed better this weekend and it's really a shame not to go through Q1," he said.

"The puncture came at the worst time of the weekend - the final run in Q1.

"This has been our best weekend so far in terms of how competitive we feel.

"We are lacking 27kph here so it's not a small deficit, but we will try to do our best in the race and hopefully we can recover some positions."

On the subject of the tyre, Alonso suggested Pirelli needs to "improve the quality", referring to the current F1 rubber as "inconsistent".