Alonso's Q3 'a dream' come true with P7 result

Fernando Alonso described reaching Q3 as "a dream" after qualifying in seventh place for the Spanish Grand Prix.

The first practice session saw Alonso's weekend get off to the worst possible start as he stopped after two corners with a power unit problem, only returning in FP2. However, a more encouraging final practice session saw the Spaniard finish in 10th place, and he delivered in qualifying with two stunning laps. The first secured a place in Q3 as the 10th-fastest car, before improving to P7 in the final part of qualifying.

"Definitely happy, surprisingly happy ..." Alonso said. "After the weekend how it started yesterday with the failure etcetera and our highest position was 13th so far this year so Q3 was a dream, not a possibility that we thought before coming here. Even Q3 and P7 is a nice result. The race is tomorrow, the points they give tomorrow, we need to maintain this position if possible and take some points home.

"In a way it is a surprise. We qualified 13th as the highest this year so yesterday was very wrong from the beginning, so today being here in Q3 was a surprise. Happy for that, happy for the team, changing the power units every day basically so hopefully we can finish the job with points."

And Alonso was keen to praise both McLaren and the home fans after delivering his best qualifying performance of the year so far.

"Yeah probably [one of my best laps]. How we build the speed from Q1, 1m22.0 to 1m 21.0, that second is just getting confidence and risking more without a bad surprise from the car. Thanks to the team, they have been working very hard, changing a lot of power units every day basically so to be in Q3 and P7 we feel we are in the positions we should be is a nice motivation and boost for the team as well.

"I think the car yesterday performed quite well even if we had the strange FP1 and FP2 with not much running. The upgrades are working fine but I felt fine with the car. The people always giving this extra motivation and extra tenths, half of this Q3 is because of them.

"Always I find this extra motivation [in Spain] to take care of every detail of the car, of the wind direction, on the tires etc. so always it is a good grand prix for me. But the race is tomorrow, they don't give points on Saturday, so we need to prepare a good strategy and start tomorrow."