Alonso happy with McLaren despite Q2 elimination

Fernando Alonso is looking forward to bringing "attacking mode" to the Australian Grand Prix, having missed out on a shot at Q3 in qualifying on Saturday. Alonso qualified 11th, with his team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne a place further back, as Haas and Renault joined the big three teams in the final section of Saturday's action.

Having ditched Honda for Renault power units this year, McLaren have set sights on progressing up the grid and Alonso offered a glimpse of their potential by delivering the third-quickest lap time of pre-season testing.

Alonso missed out on a spot in the top-10 shootout by a tenth of a second from Renault's Nico Hulkenberg.

McLaren will have free choice of tyres for Sunday's race, however, and could gain a further place if Valtteri Bottas requires a new gearbox after his Q3 crash, leaving Alonso satisfied.

"I'm happy with 11th, I think it's what we deserve, happy with it," he said.

INITIAL CLASSIFICATION (END OF Q2): Game on between Vettel and Hamilton ? #Quali #AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/VIOVZHU1Ev — Formula 1 (@F1) March 24, 2018

"I think we showed some performance in free practice, especially this morning in the damp conditions and I think we have huge potential to unlock in the car. We're still having some issues before we unlock everything, but I think in the coming races we can be more optimistic.

"I think it's going to be a different race for us, more in an attacking mode and not only defending, it's going to be fun, especially if it rains tomorrow it would be amazing for the show. We'll see what happens."

Vandoorne believes that McLaren have already shown they will be more competitive on long-run pace.

"It's difficult to tell where we expected to be exactly, but I'm a little disappointed not to be in Q3," Vandoorne said.

"I think there is potential or what we could feel in the car yesterday after the practice sessions, we thought we could be able to make the step forward but that's the way it is.

"We're in reasonable shape for tomorrow, we had some good long run pace and hopefully, we can get some points. We're in that group where a few of the teams are very close together, hopefully we can make a little bit of a difference in the race and emerge ahead of them."