Fernando Alonso faced ‘unreachable planet’ in Aston Martin F1 breakthrough

Fernando Alonso has described how the top six cars in the dreadful Sao Paulo Grand Prix qualifying conditions were on an "unreachable planet."

For the first time in 2026, Alonso put the Aston Martin into Q3 in qualifying in the dreadful conditions of Interlagos, with the two-time champion taking ninth on the road, behind Haas's Oliver Bearman and ahead of the Williams of Alex Albon. 

However, he will be promoted to eighth on the grid following Charles Leclerc's 10-place penalty for an engine change, which drops him from fourth to 14th. 

Despite the Aston Martin having its most competitive session of the season in the rain, Alonso was not able to beat Bearman, who was 0.480s quicker in Q3.

Aside from Bearman, Isack Hadjar was seventh on the road and was 1.548s quicker than Alonso's best Q3 lap of 1:30.311, with Liam Lawson's Racing Bulls machine 1.990s quicker than Alonso in fifth on the road, which will be third on the grid for the New Zealander.

Alonso did not think it was possible to match those ahead, whom he described as being as on an "unreachable planet."

"It was on the limit, but it was better than waiting in the garage, and I was thinking, and it depended on the rain intensity, but I was thinking that maybe the top five was possible," Alonso reflected to media, including RacingNews365.

"The tyres had no grip on lap one, so I said: 'Okay, I will push on lap two, but the energy modes spent a lot of energy on lap one, so I didn't have full energy on lap two, so I ended up in no man's land.

"Lap one was not optimised for the tyres, lap two not for the engine, and I think there was maybe half-a-second or eight tenths of a second of performance to unlock in Q3.

"But when I see the times, that would only offer me one position, so I think the top six guys were on an unreachable planet."

Reflecting further on his session, Alonso detailed how his tyres were "ice cold" in Q3.

"Circumstances open a new opportunity for people at the back, and we took some risks in Q1 and Q2 where the conditions were an unknown for everybody," he said.

"It was the first Q3 of the year, but then in Q3, I was expecting more, but I was the first in the queue and the tyres were ice cold, so I had no grip. 

"P6 was 1.8s in front of me, so it was too much to dream about any higher places."

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Alonso offers Honda assessment

With the wet conditions known as a great leveller of car performance, Alonso felt that the power deficit he has with the Honda compared to other units was nullified, but that outright power was not the most important factor.

"Obviously, there is less time on full throttle because there is no grip, so they cannot exploit the extra power," Alonso added, referring to his power deficit compared to rivals.

"But the engine is still very important in terms of drivability and the way it behaves in the corners, and we still have a bit of an issue there, but these conditions are more about the level of risk you want to take.

"There is a little bit of aquaplaning here and there, and you want to make it through in the top 15 first, and then in the top 10 secondly, and you just try to level the risk just to make it through."

Turning to his hopes for the race, Alonso hoped it would continue to rain to allow the team to score points.

"Between the low visibility and the tricky race, wet conditions will offer us a bit better chance to score points," he said.

"I think in dry conditions there is no way. We were P18 this morning in FP3, so we are struggling a little bit more than expected here, so maybe wet conditions will help us."