Fernando Alonso secures 'best Saturday yet' for Aston Martin in Australian Grand Prix qualifying

Alonso's best grid slot for Aston Martin was in Saudi Arabia, where he started second after Charles Leclerc was penalized. However, the Spaniard was delighted with his and the team's progress in Australia. "I feel good. Obviously, it was very tight, within one or two-tenths there were a lot of cars and we were on the upper part of that group in Q1 and Q2 - I think I was P2. And then in Q3, [by] a couple of hundredths we missed the first row of the grid."

"The Mercedes did a very good job, so still probably the best qualifying of the three [races] for us. We were 0.6 [seconds off pole] in Bahrain, 0.5 in Jeddah, and here 0.4 [seconds] from pole position, so I think we have to be happy, and let's see tomorrow what we can do," said Alonso.

Alonso, who has won two championships with Renault in the past, is confident that his long run pace could help him achieve another strong result in Australia. "Our strength is I think the long run pace, so we start in the first two rows of the grid, and our strengths are on Sundays - let's use it," he said.

Alonso, however, said he wasn't surprised that Mercedes out-qualified Aston Martin. "They are always fast - if you read their comments, it seems that they have a car that is out of Q3, but it is not that car!" he quipped.

Meanwhile, Alonso's teammate, Lance Stroll, secured the sixth position on the grid, splitting the Ferraris. However, the Canadian hinted that he could have left some time on the table. "Maybe there was a bit more lap time in it, but it's really tight if you look at the times. For sure I was pretty happy with the long run we did in FP3, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow. It's a long race," said Stroll.

Aston Martin and Mercedes are tied on 38 points ahead of tomorrow's Australian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen, who starts on pole, is seeking his first win at Albert Park.