Alonso: We can fight with the leaders

Editor 20 Sep 2014 6:37 PM

Fernando Alonso secured a customary P5 in qualifying for the Singapore GP, but the Spaniard is confident Ferrari can mix it with the pacesetters come race day.

The two-time World Champion and his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen matched the Mercedes and Red Bull cars in all three qualifying sessions, but they just couldn’t put together the perfect lap in Q3.

Raikkonen failed to really get going after picking up an engine problem while Alonso was down in fifth, but his time was only 0.226s slower than that of pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes.

“We have been competitive in all free practice sessions as we normally are, then in the qualifying we normally lose some time, but today we remained competitive in qualy so that is very good news,” he told Sky Sports F1.

“At the end the position is fifth which is usually the same about fifth, but it is a very different fifth as we are only two tenths from pole-position. So I am definitely happy and I think this gives us an opportunity to fight tomorrow with the leaders, which we are not used to, but tomorrow we have this opportunity and hopefully we can finish this weekend in a good manner.”