Protagonist in good and bad. In Canada Fernando Alonso was the man on Saturday when he managed to get the second time in qualifying by asking the Alpine A522 on the wet asphalt of the Montreal track, only to end up in the marshals’ crosshairs on Sunday, at the end of the race, when it was he was penalized with 5 seconds of additional time for having changed trajectory several times during the penultimate lap in an attempt to avoid giving Valtteri Bottas the wake.
The two-time world champion thus saw his efforts thwarted and lost seventh place and was relegated to ninth position, but this was not the greatest disappointment for Alonso. Indeed, Fernando admitted that he had had a problem with the power unit of his Alpine right from the start of the race which deprived him of the chance to fight Lewis Hamilton for the third step of the podium.
“On the twentieth lap we had an engine problem, we were losing momentum at the beginning of the straights and when exiting the corners. We tried to fix it but it didn’t work. Fortunately we didn’t have to retire the car and we managed to get some points, but until then I think we would have been fighting for the podium ”.
“At the start of the race I felt more competitive than Hamilton. Sure, we didn’t have the pace to fight with Max and Carlos, but I could control Lewis and Mercedes. Then the virtual safety cars changed the race, but I’m sure we could have fought for the third and fourth position ”.
Despite the problems with the power unit, Alonso used all his experience to try to bridge the power gap.
“When the engine problem arose, I tried to survive. I always tried to enter the DRS area by driving like a kamikaze in the corners before the detection point, because this was the only way I could have saved myself on the straights “.
Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
The overall result obtained by Alpine in Canada was also affected by a strategy that appeared to be incorrect, especially on the occasion of the first neutralization with a virtual safety car. At that juncture the team did not immediately call Fernando to the pits to change tires and go from medium to hard with the result that Alonso remained on the track accusing graining and then losing ground.
Fernando, however, did not want to focus his attention on the wrong strategy, but on the lack of reliability that always affects his car.
“It was very frustrating because my car was flying this weekend. We had another reliability problem on my car, it’s disappointing. I’m here to try to do better than sixth or seventh place ”.
“The fact that I didn’t get on the podium is linked to reliability problems and bad luck with the virtual safety car, but you can’t control bad luck, while the reliability of my car should be better”.
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