Aston Martin’s F1 qualifying pace a “massive surprise”

In an extremely tight Q3 field, Alonso’s 1m29.542s yielded him sixth on Saturday’s grid.

And while he was a tantalisingly close 0.005s off Sergio Perez in fifth and just half a tenth of George Russell in third, Alonso was buoyed by the result because he had doubts about his AMR24’s one-lap speed.

“It was a nice surprise to find ourselves competitive,” Alonso grinned. “After winter testing we had some doubts in terms of one-lap pace.

“In free…