Fernando Alonso believes McLaren shoulꦛd be targeting qualifying as high as fifth place on the grid for this weekend’s Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix. 

McLaren was bolst๊ered by a major aerodynamic upgrade in Barcelona as Alonso secured the Woking-based squad’s first Q3 appearance of the season, before going on to record his fifth consecutive points finish of 2018. 

With greater emphasis placed on having a combination of a strong chassis and downforce package as oppose t🌱o powerful engine performance, Monaco has been earmarked as a great opportunity for McLaren to achieve a big result. 

And Alonso insists gett♛ing two cars 𒊎into the final segment of qualifying on Saturday should be the minimum requirement set by McLaren. 

Whe🌠n asked which grid position would satisfy him on Saturday, the Spaniard quipped: “P1. I mean this is a race that 99% of the race is on Saturday. Let’s see, it’s difficult to predict. I think last year the car was quite strong here, Stoffel was sixth in Q1, seventh in Q2, so I think seventh was possible last year. 

“We saw in some circuits this year that we will perform better than we expect and some others we perform a little bit worse than we expect. Between P5 and P10 should be our target and to b⛦e in Q3 with both cars will be the target this weekend.”

But Alonso is not convinced a surprise result will be possible on Sunday and has played down any thoughts of McLaren achieving a first podium finish in six 🅘years. 

“It’s a different and very unique layout and weekend but at the same time 💃there are not many surprises here. It is never a place where you have a midfield team winning a race or a small team winning a race or doing the pole positꦺion. 

"There is alway꧑s a lot of expectation in Monaco but it is always a Mercedes, a Ferrari or a Red Bull on pole position. Three of these six drivers have been on the podium in the last editions, and I think it is going to be quite similar aga♏in. 

“Definitely it’s an opportunity for some of the teams to do a good race, to score a good number of points – hopefully with both cars – but it’s also qu♏ite 𒅌easy to do a mistake and lose all those points. 

"It’s quite difficult to make a surprise but it’s quite easy to make a mistake. It’s a weekend that is import🧸ant in 💛all the aspects to execute well.”