If Formula 1 teams needed a good result from Saturday's qualifying session, it was Alpine. Entering Bahrain Grampuri as the only team of the season, a strong result from Pierre Guthrie or Jacques Douhan gives a much-needed confidence boost to head into the race on Sunday.
The Alpines got exactly what they wanted.
Pierre Guthrie raided in the third quarter, threatening the top three, eventually making it fifth in Bahrain Grampuri. He was then promoted to fourth, following the number one grid penalty reported to Kimi Antoneri. As for Rookie Doohan, he put his best qualifying performance of the season, threatening the third quarter before missing just 0.017 seconds.
Still, Guthrie is fourth and Doohan is 11th, with both drivers in position to take the points home tomorrow.
“It was a very good qualification and we definitely needed it,” Guthrie said in the team's qualifying report. “I'm very pleased with the whole team with the results and performance. I struggled a bit at the start of the session. In Q1, I had a low grip and didn't feel comfortable with many slides.
“Even so, as we approach the top three and pole position, it's a surprising surprise to even Paul's position. We're doing great work along the way for the whole team. We have to focus on tomorrow.
On the other side of the garage, Duhan admitted that he had “mixed emotions” after a strong performance he still saw outside the third quarter.
“Even if most of the evening was largely very positive, after that session I have had mixed feelings after that session. We will begin tomorrow's race at the best starting position of the year on my part,” Duhan said. “Everything was well together throughout the first and second quarters. I think I missed the tire optimization window in the final run – a little too fast in the warm-up – I would have overprepared them and not maximized the perfect chance at that last push lap.
“Even so, there are a lot of positive things out there and things to understand for the future. Tomorrow will be a long race and the tires will be very degraded,” Doohan continued. “Starting 11th means we're knocking on the door of the point, so we're looking to see what we can do with the strategy and convert it into a top 10 finish in today's race.”
