Fernando Alonso said he wasn’t surprised by Ferrari’s lack of pace during qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix.

Alonso will start from the fourth row of the grid after lapping over a second slower than Sebastian Vettel in qualifying.

“I think we were not competitive in any of the sessions this weekend, unfortunately,” said Alonso. “We’re struggling a little bit with the pace compared with our main competitors.”

“But in a way is nothing new from some other weekends: qualifying struggling a little bit, Sunday improving things and at the end getting always close to the podium or in the podium so tomorrow we will try to do our good Sunday again and hopefully scoring many point and see where our main competitors finish the race.”

Alonso admitted the best strategy for the race was “not so clear” following the practice sessions so far this weekend. “I think strategy is very open at the moment,” he said.

“We need to concentrate step-by-step – the first is the start, the first corner, the first lap – after that make the tyres stay alive for a little bit longer than our rivals, and then we see.

“It’s a tricky circuit in the mechanical point of view, in the physical point of view. So we must finish the race, score as many points as possible and then check what the others did.”

2013 Singapore Grand Prix

Image ?�?� Ferrari/Ercole Colombo