Alonso and his disagreement with Hamilton on this nonsense: “He protested. He has quality and experience… but I have more”

Fernando Alonso He made the unthinkable possible again. He himself said that achieving the 4th position in the World Cup, fighting Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris’ McLaren, this is only possible if the race is crazy. But in an appointment with no major surprises, the Asturian once again capitalized on his performance Aston Martin and it surprised again. In a car that didn’t seem ready to be 7th, through good strategy and event management, he achieved a fourth place in the World Championship that no one expected, not even the Asturian himself. He did so after finishing 7th, tying Leclerc with 206 points and breaking the tie for his highest number of podiums. Important here was his battle with Hamilton, in which he inexplicably won.

After leaving the pits after his second stop, Alonso once again beat Lewis Hamilton on approach, but only narrowly. Lewis arrived on fire, with hotter tires, and stuck to Fernando Alonso’s car. The Asturian had a tendency to lose in the next round, but he again performed a great action where he showed once again that he is one step further in his reading of races.

The Spaniard, knowing that Hamilton would overtake him, braked early to allow Lewis Hamilton to pass in front of the DRS detection line to try to attack Lewis. The English did not understand this and complained on the radio that Fernando had been punished. “He gave me a break-test, long before the braking zone,” Hamilton exclaimed. That means, accused Fernando of braking in front of him in a dangerous manner to cause a crash. But it’s not like that.

Hamilton passed him like a plane on the straight and Alonso made it clear on the radio to his team that his car had turned turtle again on the straight. “We have the slowest car on the straight, by far,” Alonso said on the radio, on lap 38. What no one expected was what happened immediately after.

Fernando did not let go of Hamilton’s DRS and returned the overtake to go to 7th place which he finally achieved. In a worse car. He could do little to overtake the faster McLarens and help Aston Martin snatch 4th place in the Constructors’ Championship from Woking, but he could do enough to retain 4th place in the Drivers’ World Championship , which is very difficult.

Race Direction reviewed Alonso’s action and decided not to penalize him despite Hamilton’s complaints on the radio.

Alonso’s response to Hamilton’s complaints

And after the race, Fernando Alonso did not disappoint in his response to ‘DAZN F1’ and was surprised to remember something that happened 11 years ago. “Hamilton protested I think at turn 5 that I braked. I tried to give him the DRS (with Hamilton crossing the line first) to him to catch up with him. We did it in Canada in 2012, I think. So after 11 years, we played a bit of a cat and mouse game with the DRS line. But he has a lot of quality and a lot of experience too… but I have more”, he finished with a laugh, with the cheeky face of a child who never ceases to shock his antics and self-confidence, but in his case, at 42 years old. Alonso doesn’t change. Take oil in any situation. He did it again against a 7-time champion. It drove him crazy and he won the game with a car that this Sunday was worse than Lewis.

Race Summary

“It was a difficult race, because at the start we were in a bit of traffic with Tsunoda, the McLarens and Gasly behind us. We walked a bit with our tongues hanging out to try to keep up. I could see the tire didn’t take long to stop, and then on lap 16 we stopped and it started a little domino effect, as everybody started to stop too. And then, throughout the race, I think I always had a little bit of traffic in front or behind . There is always a battle. There is no moment of rest. The battles were not good for us because we were the slowest car all weekend (on the straight). Also in Las Vegas and Brazil (where he finished on the podium) the our weak point this year has undoubtedly been top speed. And when you’re fighting with someone, you suffer even more. But hey, we managed to overtake a few cars, Hamilton and Tsunoda, in this last stint , and that’s it.”

“Wonderful time”

“The weather is unbelievable. No matter how the race goes today, I said it on Thursday and I will not change my mind. 4th, 5th or 7th place in the Drivers’ World Championship is doesn’t change anything. And in the Constructors we have to put up a bit more fight against McLaren, but they were faster this weekend, they deserved to finish fourth and we will try to do it next year.

“The season is 10. Along with 2012, I can’t remember a season as good as this one on a personal level. 8 podiums, almost 3090 points for the team, is the best season in the history of Aston Martin or other names that preceded it, such as Racing Point or Force India. Very proud and 12 months ago, when I was here testing the Aston Martin for the first time, who would have told me it would be in the Top 5 in the World Championship.”

33 in 2024?… “We have to get our act together”

“There was a year of 33. Let’s see if next year we will start calmer with the act. But hey, we’ll see. We have to do a good job today. I think we have a lot of homework to do in the coming weeks and months. The car didn’t finish as strong as we started the season and we have to understand that very well. Today we have a car that is only good enough to fight AlphaTauri until the last lap and that is not enough to achieve 33 and anything like that. So you have to get your act together.”