Alonso turned in a stunning lap to take a surprise second and claim his first front-row grid slot since ꦦhis last pole position at the 2012 German Grand Prix for Ferrari. 

Th🧸e Alpine driver ended up 0.645s behind the dominant Verstappen but has promised to “🎐attack” the Red Bull driver on the run to Turn 1 at the start of Sunday’s grand prix. 

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Asked ෴what his goal is for the race, Alonso ♛replied: “The goal is to lead the race in Lap 1, so Turn 1 maximum attack! 

“Then💦 after that they [Red Bull and Ferrari] can go and they can fight but it would be sweet to lead the race.” 

However, the 40-year-ol♛d two-time world champion does not realistically believe he will be able to challenge for his first victory since winning the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix. 

“I’m not sure what ar🌜e the possibilities tomorro🍰w, realistically,” Alonso added. “I would say the top five is what we should fight for. 

“We have a very 💞good starting position but we know our limitations and we’ve seen races where Red Bull or Ferrari are starting last or having a puncture on Lap 1 and they still finish with a good margin in front of us. 

“I think the top four places are locked, so fifth is like a win for us and that is probably the spot we sh🧸ould aim for.” 

Asked if there is any possibility of beating Verstappen, Alonso replied: “I don’t think that we are in that luxury position, at le🌠ast in our case. Ferrari has been fighting for wins but we have been fighting for eighth, ninth, 10th so far. 

“It’s good to start in t𓂃he front row, it has been a pretty competitive weekend. The car has kept🌠 improving in the last few races with the new parts. But I think that our realistic position is not in the top five. 

“Let’s try꧟ to have a clean race, execute a good strategy, good tyre management and score as many points as possible. To think about the win is completely unrealistic.”

Alonso buoyed by Alpine improvements 

Alonso’s best qualifying result in a decade follow꧃ed a competi✨tive showing in dry conditions on Friday, before he topped a wet final practice. 

The Spaniard believes his qualifying result is a refl⛎ection of the recent gains made by his Alpine team, even if the weather ultimately enhanced their true performan✱ce. 

“We were P3 in FP3 this morning so it𝓀 seemed like we were okay in wet conditions,” Alonso explained. 

“But it was not really wet from Q2 onwards, it was nearly dry in the end. So in a way I was thinking ‘why could it not be a little bit wetter and🥃 rain a little bit now’. Maybe that was the best thing for us but eventually at the end it was not necessary and we were also okay in these sꩲemi-dry conditions. 

“The c🃏ar was also fast yesterday on dry, fast on the long run pace as well, and fast in the wet conditions this morning and now. So far it has been a very competitive weekend for us.” 

When informed o🌼f the sizeable gap to Verstappen, Alonso responded: “So that’s a lot! 

“They are in a different league for sure and it was not in our wildest dreams to be o𝕴n pole position. So we will take the first row for sure, that is maybe betꦑter than any expectation. 

“Let’s see. I think we are still missing a little bit of downforce, a little bit of total grip in the car. We have been working a lot on the tyre degradation, a lot🍬 of set-up changes. 

"I think we are better prepared than any other race so far this year,💛 so🌜 let’s finish the job tomorrow.”