Aston Martin with two faces in Baku: Alonso smiles, Stroll goes out

Baku: From Newey to Alonso

The week leading up to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix began with the big news of Adrian Newey’s signing in Aston Martinwith the famous British designer who will start working for the team next year with the great aim of making the Silverstone team the new team to beat, especially taking into account the new regulations that will come into force in 2026.

6th place for Spanish

From a strictly sporting point of view, the Baku weekend has brought joy and disappointment, in a real 50/50. Analysing the positive aspects, Fernando Alonso he returned to the points zone, obtaining a sixth position which allows him to recover in the standings on Sergio Perez (tied with Russell), protagonist of a contact at the end with Carlos Sainz which put both drivers out of the game: “I’m happy with the result and we managed to complete some overtaking in the last laps to take sixth position. – explained the two-time world champion – was a bit of a lonely race for mewith no one in front to fight with. We were able to follow the trend around us with a one-stop strategy and held position against those chasing us behind. It was still a tough race, with no time to relax. We executed everything well with a good strategy, so I’m happy to come away from this weekend in Baku with some points deserved“.

Retreat for Stroll

A placing that therefore allows Alonso to nibble away a few points on Perez and at the same time to extend his lead over his teammate Lance Strollbehind him in the standings but forced to withdraw a few laps from the end after a race far from any possibility of fighting for the points zone following a contact with Tsunoda which occurred in the early stages: “My race was pretty much over on the first lap.when Yuki and I came into contact – declared the Canadian – I dove in. I’m not sure if he saw me or not, but he closed the door on me and I had to go back to the pits for a drilling. In the first lap you go on the attack and these things happen, but this put us in difficulty for the rest of the race. With nine laps to go I started to feel a brake pedal problem which got worse with each lap. This is not a circuit where you can take risks, and we were far from the points positions, so it was logical to retire the car. It was a frustrating weekend, but I can’t wait to go to Singapore”.