Fernando Alonso believes finishing the Miami Grand Prix on the podium will be difficult despite qualifying second.

The Aston Martin driver will join Sergio Perez on the front row after a solid initial lap in Qualifying 3 on Saturday.

A late red flag caused by Charles Leclerc prevented the field from improving and handed Alonso his best start in the United States since 2007.

However, with Carlos Sainz starting third, Leclerc event,h and Max Verstappen ninth, the double-world champion expects a difficult race.

“Sunday is our day, normally. The car takes care of the tyres, normally very good, and we have a very good race pace,” Alonso began.

“We struggle a little bit on Saturday, so when we start higher up, normally things are a little bit easier.

“But we have a strong opposition behind. Ferrari has been very strong this weekend and in Baku, some upgrades also on their car.

“Max Obviously will come eventually in the race, quite fast, so a lot of things to take care of in the mirrors.

“But we will do our race, we will score as many points as possible, and our main competitors, Mercedes, they’ve had a difficult weekend so far, so we need to keep outscoring them.”

In predicting a podium will be difficult, Alonso also all but ruled out his chances of victory.

“I don’t think that we have to target a win, especially after how the weekend went,” he said.

“I think even the podium is going to be difficult but we will do our race.

“We’ve been doing this the whole season. We are in a privileged position; we never expected to be here.

“Every race lap that we will do tomorrow in these kind of positions is a gift at the moment.

“We will try to pass Checo [Perez] to lead the race at least a few laps, and after that it’s just ending up in the position we deserve.

“If it’s P5, it’s going to be P5; if it’s P7, [it will be] P7; if it’s another podium,m that will be fantastic, but I think it’s going to be a tough race.”

The Miami Grand Prix begins at 15:30 local time on Sunday (05:30 AEST Monday).