Fernando Alonso has hailed Saturday's qualifying performance at the British Grand Prix as the "best" of the season.
The Ferrari driver qualified behind Red Bull duo Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel at Silverstone on Saturday and was just 0.117 behind pole-sitter Webber's time of 1:30.399.
The Spaniard feels although P3 didn't equal their highest grid slot for the season, it was definitely the team's best performance in qualifying this campaign and is also convinced he can put pressure on the two Red Bull drivers on Sunday.
"I think that was the best qualifying of the year in performance terms," he said.
"It's true that the actual result was better in Canada - second - but I was further off pole position than I am today. Furthermore, we are at a circuit that definitely does not suit the characteristics of our car and to be just over a tenth off first is a great sign.
"The new parts we introduced here worked well and I think that tomorrow, we can put those who start in front of us under a bit of pressure. The team has done so much work and this step forward is down to them."
Both Alonso and team-mate Felipe Massa have struggled with the hard tyres throughout the season, but the double World Champion also feels the team are finally coming to grips with it.
"We have also made progress in the way we manage the tyres: from what we could see in the few dry laps we did today, we can even make the hard tyre work, while back in Barcelona they lost us a lap in less than half a race distance," he said.
"Tyre performance will be very important tomorrow, whether as forecast it's dry, or wet, which can always ambush you here. We will have to be ready for any eventuality: it will be important to get a good start, which constitutes the only really new element at this track compared to the past. Am I hoping for rain? No, especially for the fans who have already got wet for the past two days. Let's hope we can put on a great show for this very large crowd."
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