Q & A with Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso: Well, not fantastic. We did the maximum we could. And this was the result. We were not able to be in the Q3 but we will try tomorrow to do a good race, and next Saturday in Malaysia try to do a better job.

Q. Did the red flag (in Q2) come at a bad moment for you?

FA: Yes, a very bad moment. I crossed the line and did a 1:26.0. I saw it come up on the display, so I said - okay I am in. But they cancelled that lap obviously because there was a red flag 100 metres before I crossed the line. But we cannot use that excuse to motivate ourselves. The result has been bad because we were not competitive, even on our second run.

Q. You said at the launch that you felt Renault were one second behind the front cars. Today it seems you were right. Have you seen progress them, and can you see progress on the horizon?

FA: Yeah. For sure. We are something like eight tenths behind the fastest in Q2 because we were able to do a 1m25.9s in Q2. The quickest time was a 1m25.1s, so we are something like eight tenths behind the top one. That is a little bit of a nice surprise because we are a little bit closer than we thought, and because the competition is very high and, not only us, we were able to reduce the gap. Many teams are closer to Ferrari and McLaren and it is good competition at the moment.

Q. Renault were actually the ninth fastest car today. Is that a little bit depressing?

FA: Well, that is something to look at closely. It is true that I was nearly able to get into Q3 but the team result overall is not fantastic. Twelfth and 21st is not a good result at all. We still have work to do, we knew that.

For Nelsinho it was a difficult weekend, with very little practice yesterday because of some mechanical problems. And it is a tricky circuit here in Melbourne also. We will improve also for Malaysia. Okay we didn't arrive for Q3, but we are closer to the top teams than we thought before we came here.

Q. Did it surprise you that Ferrari were not in the top three?

FA: Yeah, a little bit surprised. As I said before, (Felipe) Massa was fifth in Q2 and with a good lap from me, maybe we were four tenths or five tenths behind Massa. That is something really that we didn't expect at all.

I think McLaren have been strong but BMW Sauber are more or less at the same level, because Kubica was P1 in first qualifying, P2 in second qualifying, so the second position in Q3 is not a result of any fuel load or anything like that. The BMW was quick in Q1 and Q2 as well, so maybe Ferrari we were expecting a little bit more, but maybe tomorrow they will be very strong.

Q. What result would satisfy you tomorrow?

FA: I think with the starting position, aiming for points will be our target. We have to be realistic and knowing that we are not quite ready yet, but we will try to improve for sure the 11th position. So whatever is the position, we will try to be in the points tomorrow, knowing that people behind me, like (Kimi) Raikkonen and (Mark) Webber will be difficult to keep behind. So we have a double job tomorrow - try to recover places and not to lose it to Raikkonen and people like that.

Q. Do you think the long-run pace of the car will be better than the single-lap pace?

FA: Yes, I think so. But starting behind is always difficult because you stress a little more the tyres. You are running with less downforce, you are running behind people and, with this year's regulations, you need to take care of the tyres even more than last year.

It is very easy to do a mistake on braking or losing the traction, so it will be an interesting race. For sure, the first race of the championship has some new rules, and there are many things to take care of tomorrow.

Q.Are you interested to know what the start will be like tomorrow?

FA: Yes, it will be interesting. I think nobody knows at the moment. All the teams try to recover and analyse all the systems that their competitors have in the tests, but the real first time we will see will be tomorrow.

It is difficult to do a good start because all of them are quite tricky, but it is quite easy to do a bad start. So you need to do a very simple thing: don't risk too much, and wait for some mistakes from the others.

Q. Will it be difficult to get prepared for the start with the noise from the other cars?

FA: No, I don't think so. We control more or less the wheelspin with the feeling of the throttle, and the revs. So, we see on the display the revs. Even if it is noisy being with the other cars, it will not change much.