一个lonso in P6: ‘We are in our real position’

Fernando Alonso believes his P6 start on the grid for the Brazilian Grand Prix is a much better reflection of the car he has at his disposal at McLaren.

The Spaniard posted yet another impressive time in qualifying and was just 0.019 seconds away from leapfrogging Sergio Perez in the Force India.

Due to Daniel Ricciardo's 10-place grid penalty, Alonso moves up one position from P7 on Sunday's grid and he is feeling very optimistic with regards to the development of the chassis.

"Normally we cross the line and we are one of the first cars and be P7 or P8 and then becomes P9 or P10 so when they said still P7 and start sixth, now we start in the real position," Alonso told Sky F1.

"We are quite competitive now. The car is showing great performance lately and I think that's coming from the chassis development.

"It's a good direction we took and Australia next year will be a completely different thing and we will be looking forwards.

一个lonso is wary of the threat posed by Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton, who will start at the back of the grid after crashing out in qualifying, in Sunday's race but is very hopeful he can deliver points.

"I think we have a good car on Sundays," he added.

No doubt Ricciardo and Hamilton will come back very strongly and it will be difficult to defend those positions. But we saw in Mexico I will not give up and will try and defend anyone who is attacking me. Hopefully we can get some points.

"We have a great chance. We have been close to the points starting from the back so hopefully starting sixth things will be a little bit easier and hopefully we deliver the result tomorrow."