McLaren Honda
Fernando Alonso says he is targeting finishing Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix after McLaren was again eliminated in the first knockout session in qualifying.
Alonso was beaten by team-mate Jenson Button by just 0.004s but the Spaniard, who will line-up in 18th place, says his focus is on reaching the end of the race at Shanghai.
"We were two tenths away from the mid-pack – and close to getting into Q2 – today," said Alonso, who sat out the final practice session due to a technical problem.
"We’re getting there, and this is another step forward, but we’re still under-performing, so we need to keep improving.
"Our main priority now is to finish tomorrow’s race; that’ll allow us to learn more about the car and uncover any possible problems.
"Obviously, two DNFs in Malaysia wasn’t an ideal situation for us, so, regardless of the result, we need to make the finish here in China."
