From miracle to disappointment: this was Alonso’s Austin GP

Max Verstappen won yesterday at United States F1 GP with a final return after an error of red bull at your stop. He changed it by going to Leclerc (3rd) already hamilton (2nd) with his car’s plane, making it a bit more spicier than expected, to return to the lead with 6 laps to go. But yesterday the man of the day was different: Fernando Alonso.

The Spaniard suffered a serious accident on lap 22, after starting 14th he was already overtaking. take a walk in 7th place. The Spaniard caught the slipstream of his future teammate in 2023, got up to pass him, and when he had his wing next to the Canadian’s wheel, Lance moved and both collided.

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Fernando Alonso is just a passenger. The front wheels of his car were approaching. I couldn’t see anything and the wall was next to me. He grabbed the side protections of the car and returned to the asphalt. “When I was in the air, I was a little scared, because when you go to the outer fences… it happens a lot of times in IndyCar, that you do 360º and it can be dangerous. And well, when I saw that it landed on the asphalt, I said: ‘The whole car is probably broken, I’m going to retire and the race is over'”. The car fell to the ground again. The most logical thing is that the race is over for the Spaniard. His car is believed to have been destroyed.

With the ‘Safety Car’ on track for that crash, he went into the pits and got a surprise. “I got in, we changed tires and they told me we were going all the way. There were 32 laps to go, and I said: ‘Surely we can’t do it'”. But there, Fernando took out the magic wand. After the massive blow, of living from inside the passenger compartment of the car falling on the asphalt at high speed, the Spaniard knows that a lot of damage can be done. He was lucky to get out unscathed. He put the rest with his hands and his will, because after that impact, you have to have a lot of courage to attack again like he did. It went to the knife.

epic comeback

With nothing to lose he began to push from 16th position on the hard rubber. His speed was devastating and in turn, his comeback was possible because of the stop he made after the crash, because it allowed him to put the hard rubber taking advantage of his own ‘safety’ without losing time, something that put him. the race.

After just 19 laps, Alonso chased down teammate Esteban Ocon with great speed to finish 8th. A huge moral blow to the Frenchman, with a badly damaged car, with a backwards rear-view mirror that ends up crashing, the Spaniard gives an extraordinary recital. The Alpine looks like a TV, you give it a hit and it works better than ever. I’m flying

The Spaniard is 3.5 seconds behind Magnussen. But he didn’t care. In 7 laps he caught up with him and passed him for 6th place, gaining another place by saving from his other rival. On a rubber with many laps, he gives the ‘show’ that the American fans want to see. In the end, however, Fernando Alonso tried to hold off a Lando Norris behind who was running on a newer 12-turn tire. He gave the Englishman a hard time, but Lando would end up taking sixth place from him.

Despite this, 7th place tasted glory for an Asturian who clarified that “in the last 20 laps he was still thinking about the accident and he just wanted to finish the race”. It can do a lot of damage. I told you so. So, after he got out of the car, he sat on one of the wheels of his Alpine to reflect on everything that had happened. And when he arrived at the press corralito, he was thankful that he was fine. “First of all, I’m happy to be here talking to you because I could be in the medical center, for sure”, he commented on ‘DAZN F1’ before referring to this appointment as his “best race of the year”. He was the man of the day, although officially it was Vettel. He showed his resistance. Never give up. A “true careerist”, as Emerson Fittipaldi referred to him in MD months ago. He proved it again.

The recession came later, when dropped to 15th place due to a 30 second penalty after the Haas team protested about the safety of his car.