Fernando Alonso was left pleasantly surprised with 13th on the grid in China, something he put down to pushing like a "big animal" -- more specifically, an elephant -- in qualifying to make up for McLaren's significant power deficit.
McLaren came to China braced for a difficult weekend, with the Shanghai International Circuit's long backstraight expected to punish Honda's power unit. Alonso and teammate Stoffel Vandoorne finished 17th and 19th in final practice, seemingly confirming those concerns.
However Alonso was one of the star performers of Q1, finishing tenth to progress to the next session. He had told McLaren that lap was due to the fact he was pushing like an animal and he eventually settled for 13th in Q2.