In Shanghai, Alonso did great in the race. He got third place in Q3, which means he was the best driver after the two Red Bull drivers, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. He beat the McLaren and Ferrari cars to get this position.
But Alonso said he almost gave up during his last lap because he made a mistake at the start of the track. He almost lost control of his car in the first two corners. He thought about stopping the lap because he lost two-tenths of a second, but he decided to keep going. He said, “We didn’t give up, we kept pushing all through the lap and set a good lap time.”
Alonso’s team, Aston Martin, made some changes to his car before the race. They had a chance to make more changes because of a new rule. Alonso hopes these changes will help him in the race.
Alonso knows the track conditions can change a lot during the race. Some of the changes they made to the car might work well, and some might not. He said, “Until tomorrow afternoon we will not know the answer, but I’m extremely happy, and proud of the team. We are not giving up. We are not in the position we want yet but we keep pushing.”
Alonso had a chance to do well in the sprint race on Saturday morning, but he had to retire after getting a puncture while fighting with Carlos Sainz from Ferrari. Even though he couldn’t finish the race, he still got a 10-second penalty after the race was over.
