At the Carlos Pace in Sao Paulo, Brazil, home of the Brazilian Grand Prix, it was ‘vintage Fernando’. Alonso started a sensational duel with Sergio Perez during the last 10 laps of the race, beating his rival thanks to a great counter-overtaking on the last lap and a strenuous defense at the last corner thanks to which he took the podium by just 5 cents.
Alonso showed how the identity card is just a document that thanks to talent, perseverance, healthy stubbornness and physical preparation one can still do legendary things in sport, even in an extremely competitive and challenging one from a physical and physical point of view. mental like Formula 1.
With two laps to go Sergio Perez was very good at outwitting Fernando after almost 10 passes behind the Spaniard to study him and understand how to get close enough to take advantage of the great DRS system of his RB19. Alonso, up to that point, had managed to perfectly manage the hybrid part of the Mercedes power unit of his AMR23, but he had to capitulate.
Perez, however, did not have such a clear speed compared to Alonso and already in Turn 1, on the last lap, the Asturian understood that he could have one last attack by taking advantage of too deep braking by his rival in Turn 1. At that point Alonso he was exceptional in overtaking on the outside into turn 4, with which he managed to put his wheels back in front of Perez’s and finish on the podium.
“For me the last 10 laps with Perez’s pressure behind me felt like 30! When he overtook me with 2 laps to go I thought it was over, that I no longer had the opportunity to fight for the podium.”
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin F1 Team
“But then I saw that he braked very late in Turn 1 and I got closer, so I decided to make one last attempt at Turn 4,” said a smiling Alonso once the race was over.
“For us, for the team, it is a phenomenal result because we have struggled a lot over the last few months. Especially during the last 2 races where we retired. This is why today’s result is for all the people who work in the factory. We continue to fight until the last lap.”
“We are still learning a lot about the car because these cars are really complex on an aerodynamic level. We have experimented with things to understand the direction to take for next year and we hope to continue to compete with the best both this year and next year after this good result”, concluded Alonso.
Sergio Perez arrived in the interview area understandably much more dejected than Alonso, but with the certainty – not yet mathematical, but it’s almost there – that he will be able to finish the World Championship in second place in the general classification behind Verstappen.
“It was a great battle with Fernando, very pleasant, I enjoyed it a lot. But he had much more speed on the straight than us. They had less load than us but they managed to manage it better. They were very good at it.”
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