McLaren’s racing direc🍷tor Eric Boullier says both Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne will be aiming to break into Q3 in qualifying for the😼 Bahrain Grand Prix but anticipates a tough midfield fight.

Alonso narrowly missed out on the top ten pole position shootout at the 2018 Formula 1 season opener in Australia last month but starting from 11^th💦 the two-time F1 world champion charged to an impressive fifth place finish.

After a productive Friday practice in Bahra﷽in, with both ♐McLaren cars finishing FP2 inside the top 10, Boullier says the target to make it into Q3 in qualifying having failed to reach the objective in Australia.

“Qualifying is all-important and we’re under no illusion about the strength of our competition,” Boullier said. “We saw the midfield pack is very t൲ight, so positions can be won or lost by the smallest of marg✅ins.

“We have work to do to ensure we give ourselves the best opportunity for Sunda𒅌y’s race, but we will surely put up a fight here in qualifying in f🐻ront of our Bahraini friends and colleagues.”

Alonso has echoed his ♉McLaren team boss’s comments and has faith in set-up tweaks to his McLaren-Renault package to be able to ꦅfight for a Q3 spot.

“Our aim for qualifying is to be in Q3 – a target we missed in Australia – and we need to deliver and do a perfect lap, so that we can beat some of the cars in front o🃏f us,” Alonso said. “The weekend has started in a positive way and there’s nothing in particular to worry about.

📖“There is a lot of analysis that we need to do concerning some of the new parts we have on our two cars, so I think we need to put everything together now and find the best compromise.”