Alonso planning surprise tactics in India 27 October 2013 03:32 Ferraris Fernando Alonso has conceded his only hope of winning the Indian Grand Prix will be to try something different. Alonso, who sits second in the drivers championship standings with 207 points, 90 behind Red Bulls Sebastian Vettel with four races to go in the 2013 Formula One season, used the harder compound tyres in the third session of qualifying on Saturday. The Spaniard, 32, was just one of four drivers to choose that option, which will mean he must start Sundays GP on the hard tyre, but Alonso reckons it may give him an edge on the cars ahead of him when he begins at eighth on the grid at the Buddh International Circuit. Ferrari decided to try different tyre strategies between their two cars on Saturday with Felipe Massa using the softer compound to qualify fifth. Im happy with my strategy, Alonso told Autosport after qualifying. The best decision from the team was to put one car on one strategy and one car on another. At some point in the race we need to put the soft tyre on as well and we will struggle so we need to be ready for that. But if we started on the same strategy we would not gain any places because we are not as quick as the others. Until tomorrow, no one knows what will work better. The better strategy will win. Alonso is banking on all the drivers ahead of him, who start on the soft compound, struggling as their tyres degrade. If the soft lasts, with good conditions and good pace, long enough, the people in front will not have any problems, he said. (But) the soft tyres are not good. Its not a hope, its the reality. If its a disaster tomorrow, people will have more problems. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton confirmed Mercedes had put in a bit of extra effort into their strategy and driving in India after four straight races without a podium finish. Mercedes Nico Rosberg and Hamilton qualified second and third respectively, with Vettel claiming pole position. Weve been pushing...as hard as we can, we really want to get a great result this weekend, Hamilton said. Strategy is going to play a huge part...but generally, bit by bit, adjusting the set-up and everything, we got a reasonable balance and hopefully tomorrow we can push together to try and stay ahead of the rest. LATEST NEWS
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 05:56:54 +0000
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