Alonso baffled by "bad thing" of Portuguese performance drop-off

Fernando Alonso has conceded to being left baffled by the performance drop-off of his Alpine that has left him languishing on the Portuguese Grand Prix grid.

The Spaniard had looked comfortable throughout practice, finishing fifth in Friday's afternoon session but could only muster 13th in qualifying behind the Williams of George Russell and Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi.

Despite being unaware as to why the performance vanished between the sessions, Alonso at least praised the improvement shown by Alpine across the weekend.

"I didn't think I had the pace even from the run in Q1," said Alonso. "From FP3 to Q1 we lost a lot of the feeling of the car and the performance of the car so that was a bad thing.

"We are still investigating what could be the reasons to lose one second of pace but there is nothing we can do now.

"I am still quite happy with everything this weekend. The car feels much better, much more alive and very competitive in all the sessions so it was a very big step forward for us."

With team-mate Esteban Ocon qualifying sixth after progressing to Q3 on the soft compound tyre, Alonso is eyeing a split strategy with his free choice of rubber in order to score a positive result for the team.

"Maybe we are not in the position we should be but we have the free choice of tyre," added the two-time champion.

"That may be good for the race in a way, as a team, to have two possibilities with the two drivers. I think it is a very, very positive weekend."

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