Alpine duo elated with ‘awesome’ qualifying showing as they lock out third row in Hungary

Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso are seeking another solid haul of points on Sunday as they put their Alpines a respective fifth and sixth on the grid for the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix.

With Alpine just four points ahead of McLaren in Hungary, Ocon helped the team’s case for P4 in the constructors’ by securing a personal-best P5 grid spot at the Hungaroring. Given he won the 2021 Hungarian GP, it’s little surprise that the Frenchman enjoyed his flurry of flying laps in Saturday’s qualifying session – although he admitted he was disappointed not to have pipped Lando Norris to P4.

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“Yes, it’s definitely a track that I love racing at, and definitely the car came nicely together on that last lap,” he began. “It’s been really nice to build up that well into quali, and towards that last lap, we pulled it together, so that’s awesome for us.

“We need to get in front of Lando though – that’s the only disappointing thing about today, but he was too fast for us, so let’s try and score some good points tomorrow.

“It’s not going to be easy, those guys are going to fight hard. But let’s try and do our best race first of all on our side and see what we can do,” added Ocon.

On Sunday, Ocon will start behind Norris but ahead of team mate Alonso, who was also pleased with a “strong” showing on Saturday amid tough conditions. Wet conditions welcomed the drivers in FP3 before the track dried up for qualifying, where George Russell took his first F1 pole position.

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“Yes, it was a very strong Saturday for us in both conditions, wet and dry,” said Alonso. “And I mean the Q3 was very windy, probably surprised me a little bit, not having the same timed lap of Q2, which remains the fastest for me, strangely. It was tight, but let’s see tomorrow if we can maximise this position.

“We seem fast – let’s see if we can repeat a good strong weekend, score points with both cars and go into the break with a good taste.”