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Alonso We will see if we can challenge Verstappen

Alonso: 'We will see if we can challenge Verstappen'

18 June 2023 at 09:43
Last update 18 June 2023 at 13:51

Fernando Alonso will start the Canadian Grand Prix alongside Max Verstappen on track. The Spaniard finished third, but was allowed to move up one place towards the reigning world champion due to Nico Hulkenberg's grid penalty. Alonso looks back on a wet qualifying session.

"Yesterday was too short FP2, but happy the new parts were good and delivering what we were expecting, so that's another very good sign, and let's see tomorrow on a dry race if we can challenge Max a little bit. I don't think that we are in that level that's for sure, but instead of being 20 seconds behind or 30 seconds behind, hopefully we are a little bit closer," Alonso told a press briefing.

Can Alonso overtake Perez?

The Spanish Aston Martin driver will undoubtedly try to overtake Sergio Perez in the world championship. The Red Bull driver is on 117 points, where Alonso has 99. The gap is still big, but one race could be enough, and especially thanks to upgrades on the Aston Martin, Alonso seems to have become more competitive.

"I think on the new parts early days still under evaluation and I think we still need to optimise a little bit the setup of the car now with the new package, which is what we found yesterday that I think in Austria or Silverstone we will extract the maximum of it," said the 42-year-old driver.