21/09/2013
NEWS STORY
Mat Coch writes:
Barring something totally untoward, Fernando Alonso expects he will lose further ground to championship leader Sebastian Vettel following tomorrow's Singapore Grand Prix.
Although he qualified seventh the Ferrari driver's best time was more than a second adrift of Vettel's pole winning lap. The team brought new parts for this weekend which have given the Spaniard an extra tenth of second though it's still clearly far from enough.
"Our opponents are not watching TV between grands prix, they are also improving," said Alonso on Saturday evening.
"In July we were on average eight-tenths slower than our competitors, and here we are 1.1 seconds (slower)," he added.
This weekend Red Bull has looked the class of the field with Mercedes nipping at its heels. Lotus too has outpaced the Maranello squad, a point which doesn't come as a surprise.
"On a high downforce circuit we were fourth fastest in Hungary, we came here and we are maybe the fourth fastest team," he said. "I think we need to be realistic and not be happy at all with the performance that we did here."
The 32-year-old was quick to point out that he was in a not too dissimilar situation last year, and that it worked out okay for him in the end.
"Last year we were out of the podium until Lewis had a gearbox problem and we took third position," he recalled. "I started fifth or sixth and had a terrible start and di Resta passed me. I got to turn one in sixth or seventh and we finished on the podium.
"We have 189 points and we are second in the world championship so that is our strong point," he added. "All we can do now is have a perfect race tomorrow."
Check out our Saturday gallery, here.