Fernando Alonso surprised by his Daytona 24 Hours qualifying result
Fernando Alonso was surprised by his performance in qualifying for the Daytona 24 Hours, outpacing LMP2 regulars including World Endurance champion Bruno Senna
Formula 1 star Alonso lapped 0.925s off pole to qualify 13th for this weekend's race, with his United Autosports-run Ligier clearly not possessing top-10 pace, but he was content with his performance.
"I was happy with the laps, more or less happy with the balance," Alonso said.
"We felt competitive and we achieved the maximum. We still need to improve a bit to find a bit more speed.
"Happy to be fastest Ligier, by a good margin, we have top guys in our team - Bruno Senna is the world champion in LMP2 - he's in the other car.
"Some of the best guys out there, best drivers in LMP2 last year, they are a little bit behind us, so it was a surprise for us in qualifying to be quite fast, quite happy.
"It was nice to have some laps finally in the car with no traffic, in free practice there was a lot of traffic and a lot of things go on, but [in qualifying] you can put some laps together and get used to the car a little bit more."
Alonso said he did not place much significance on qualifying ahead of his first endurance race.
"Knowing it's a 24-hour race, it was probably the least important qualifying of my life until now," he said.
"Normally I have 60 laps or 70 laps to recover what I did in qualifying; on Saturday we have 24 hours.
"Qualifying was not the key point of this weekend."
The Spaniard reiterated that his aim this weekend is to gain experience ahead of a future that will likely include an attempt at the Le Mans 24 Hours.
"I knew before coming here the package we have is not the quickest," he said.
"But at the same time it's a race that is long enough to recover the lack of performance you may have.
"We are a very new team, two rookies in the car, Lando [Norris] and myself, a lot to learn.
"It's good also not to have the pressure to be super-competitive and to be super-fast.
"It's a learning experience, a learning race, a preparation also if one day I attempt the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
"I need to respect that race, also this race, and know there are a lot of guys with more experience than me and more prepared than me.
"So if I want to be as prepared as them, and to have the experience, this weekend is the perfect opportunity."
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