Alonso finished second behind Sergio Perez in Florida, matching his previous best performance of the year in Jeddah thanks to issues with Max Verstappen and red flags for reduced track action.

Asked about the prospect of victory, Alonso was keen to downplay his chances.

“I don’t think we have to aim for the win, especially after having a good weekend,” he said.

“I think even the podium is going to be difficult, but we’re going to race. We’ve been doing this all season and we’re in a good position, we never thought we’d be here.

“So, every lap that we do, every lap that we’re going to do tomorrow in these positions is a gift of the moment. So, I think the team is enjoying it.

“We’ll try to go into Turn 1 through Checo because we like to lead the race, at least for a few laps. After that, we’ll finally get the position we deserve.

“If it’s P5, it’s P5. If it’s P7, it’s P7. If it’s another podium, it’s great. But I think it’s going to be a tough race.”

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin F1 Team, after qualifying at Parc Ferme

Photography: Zak Mauger / motorsport pictures

However, Clarke said Aston must aim for victory given Alonso’s front-row grid position.

“The opportunities are there,” he said when asked by Autosport about his drivers’ chances.

“I mean, if you start from the first row, I said in Jeddah too, if you start from the first row, your aim has to be to win games.

“But, I think, besides Sergio, we have strong competitors who didn’t put everything together today. But we’ll try. We’ll give it our all.”

Clark acknowledged that it was difficult for the team to get a proper view of the Miami track given the changing conditions.

“The first game yesterday was not easy,” he said. “With the vast improvement of the track, I think it’s very, very difficult to read the track.

“You do your simulations, and we also had Baku surfaced a while ago, so we thought it might be similar to that. But it wasn’t.

“It puts you back a little bit. Then we had two red flags and then you go out and you don’t really know where you are.

“And I don’t think we’re 100 per cent sure where we are in all the races until qualifying.”

Qualifying top three Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin F1 Team, pole position Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari

Photography: Mark Sutton/ motorsport pictures

Clark said the lack of information would also affect the race: “At the moment we really don’t know anything about the track because of the red flags.

“Nobody ran long distances yesterday. So it’s going to be a race where you have to make those decisions in the race, which makes it a lot of fun.”

He did concede, however, that Aston’s good tire degradation could be an advantage over rivals on Sunday.

“We can’t deny that we’ve had a strong car in all the previous events,” he said, “so that’s something we can rely on. But you still have to do it.

“It’s a long race and maybe other people have improved their cars. So we’re not necessarily going to be in a tight race.”

Clarke, meanwhile, admitted the team made a mistake by not putting Lance Stroll on a second set of new tires in Q1, and hoped the Canadian would follow Alonso’s lead and pass a set, which he didn’t. arrive.

“There’s no need to take that risk,” he said. “I think as a team, there are some stats, some projections to let ourselves know what the deadline is.

“We’re not good enough in this thing. I think we might be a little bit greedy, trying to push forward and bring it into the third quarter to do another set on an extra set. But we’ve got to learn our lesson and the next Do it better this time.”