Fernando Alonso says 11th is the best position for him to start Sunday's Mexican Grand Prix after narrowly missing out on a place in the top 10 during qualifying.
The McLaren driver was edged out of the top 10 in the final seconds of Q2 and will line up from 11th with teammate Jenson Button two places back in 13th. Despite failing to make it through into the final segment of qualifying, Alonso feels that missing out on a spot in Q3 provides him with a strong strategy thanks to a free tyre choice for the start of the race.
"This was probably the best position we could have dreamed of today, because we get a free choice of tyres for the race," the double-world champion explained. "I'm starting on the clean side, so a lot of things have gone our way today. We were not quick enough, unfortunately.
"We're struggling a little bit for pace and I think it will be the same thing for the remaining races. For us P11 is the best possible position, so I'm happy with today's performance but we need to understand why we're not as competitive as we were recently. We've put everything into the 2017 car so maybe we're paying the price for that decision."
After having his interview interrupted by Button, the Spaniard joked that beating his teammate was all he wanted to achieve on Sunday.
"As far as I'm concerned if I finish ahead of Jenson that's all I want."
Traffic proved a problematic factor throughout practice and qualifying and following his own incident with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel during FP2, Alonso says he aims to steer clear of any potential trouble on race-day, as well as getting caught up in the championship fight between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
"Tomorrow everything will be unknown, so we have to go into the race with an open strategy. Avoiding traffic will be one of the priorities for the race, but the feeling for the tyres changed from Friday to Saturday. I try not to do anything stupid with anyone on the track, so I'll do the same with the title contenders."