The two-time world champion will start the shortened Saturday afternoon race at the Red Bull Ring from seventh place on the grid, one spot ahead of his Silverstone team-mate Lance Stroll.
Alonso reckoned that the one-lap result from the Aston Martin duo was “kind of a miracle” since an extra qualifying shootout for a sprint round and a drying session had exposed a flaw in the rules.
Ordinarily, drivers must use a new set of medium tyres in the SQ1 and SQ2 sessions before switching to set a of new or scrubbed softs for SQ3. But morning rain - despite the emergence of a dry line - left the session to be declared wet, which freed up tyre choice for teams.
In the 12-minute SQ1 session, drivers split between intermediate, medium and soft Pirelli compounds. But cooler conditions left the more responsive soft tyre as the preferred option.
However, drivers who had progressed into Q3 during the Friday qualifying session for the grand prix had already eaten into their soft-tyre allocation. They - including the Aston Martin pair – were subsequently left without the advantage of a fresh set of softs to contest SQ3 on Saturday.
Alonso reckons this left rival teams who underperformed on Friday with an unfair advantage, so he has called on the rule-makers to close this supposed hole in the regulations.
Source: Autosport