Alonso felt the 'adrenaline' back in upgraded AM

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Fernando Alonso has said he got the rush of adrenaline a Formula 1 qualifying session should be about as he dragged Aston Martin into Q2 for the first time this season.

Alonso qualified 16th, the same number of new parts the team brought to Budapest for this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix in its first major upgrade package of the year, effectively arriving with a brand new car.

Aston Martin had been stuck at the back of the pack all year after a nightmare start with engine partner Honda.

While still a long way off the team's title-winning aspirations, Alonso felt as though the package was finally letting him make a difference.

"Definitely, it was a different weekend, different qualifying where we felt that we could fight a little bit more and we could influence the final result of the qualifying if we made a perfect lap or a perfect setup," Alonso said.

"So that adrenaline when you close the visor and you go into the lap, it was missed in the last few events where we were in the last row of the grid, whatever we were doing on the car. So yeah, it was nice to go back to that feeling and hopefully more to come in the next few races."

Aston Martin's Hungary upgrade is the first of a few planned by team boss Adrian Newey over the next few months.

- Hungarian Grand Prix: Lando Norris upsets Ferrari and Mercedes with blistering pole
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- Lewis Hamilton handed grid penalty after impeding Oscar Piastri in qualifying, starts Hungarian GP in fifth

The team will also get Honda's upgraded engine at the Dutch Grand Prix, the first race back from the August summer break which follows Sunday's Budapest event.

Alonso said Sunday's race will be a good way to judge the baseline of this new package.

When asked if he was going into Sunday with a bit more excitement than normal, he said: "Difficult because I think the points are a little bit out of reach, still far away but I think there is still more potential to unlock in the car.

"It's going to be the first time we do more than six or seven laps on this package so it's going to be a good test for the reliability and other stuff on the car so I'm looking forward."