Sam Bird has admitted that Fernando Alonso left him ‘very surprised’ during qualifying for the 2024 Chinese GP before quickly changing his mind about the Aston Martin star. The 42-year-old registered his best qualifying of the year so far at the Shanghai International Circuit. Alonso will open the Chinese GP from the second row of the grid in P3. But his Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll will start down in P11 after failing to get into Q2 this Saturday. Alonso already had a second-row start on his record in 2024 from the Saudi Arabian GP. But the Spaniard started the race from the dirty side …