Aston Martin’s tempo was an unknown issue heading into qualifying after Alonso and team-mate Lance Stroll completed 12th and 14th respectively in closing observe.
Alonso additionally barely scraped by in Q1, with Stroll even eradicated in 18th. However in Q2 the two-time world champion got here to the fore with third, beneath three tenths shy of pacesetter Max Verstappen.
In a disrupted Q3 shootout the Spaniard then grabbed a second starting spot alongside Crimson Bull’s polesitter Sergio Perez.
In accordance with Alonso, his “messy FP3” was attributable to set-up experiments, however on a extra acquainted set-up his AMR23 “got here alive” in qualifying.
“It was a great qualifying, I believe FP3 was slightly bit messy for us,” he defined.
“We tried completely different set-ups they usually did not work, however the crew clearly put the automobile in a extra identified place after the primary 4 races and the automobile got here alive in qualifying.
“So yeah, extraordinarily proud of P2. Clearly, first row of the grid, let’s have a look at what we are able to do.”
High three Qualifiers Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin F1 Staff, pole man Sergio Perez, Crimson Bull Racing, and Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari
Picture by: Mark Sutton
Qualifying on the repaved Miami Worldwide Autodrome threw up some stunning outcomes, with Verstappen caught down in ninth after making a mistake on his solely timed lap.
Charles Leclerc’s crash then prevented anybody from setting one other time as he introduced out the purple flag with not sufficient time on the clock to restart the session.
It meant his team-mate Sainz was locked into third, with Haas’ stunning Kevin Magnussen set to hitch him on the second row.
However amid complaints over Miami’s low-grip observe, Alonso stated he “loved each lap” of its difficult format.
“I did take pleasure in each lap, it was so gratifying to drive,” he beamed. “Particularly the low-speed corners listed here are fairly tough.
“You go fairly near the partitions between Flip 11 and 16, so you’ll want to have that confidence within the automobile to actually assault qualifying. And I had the boldness as we speak, so I used to be more than happy.
“It was tough the entire weekend. It’s a very slender racing line that we’re cleansing, and it will get fairly grippy, however offline it will get fairly slippery.”
