Stroll’s redemption
Great show of strengthAston Martin In the United States Grand Prixwhich despite the departure of the pit lances of both its drivers from the pit lane, achieves a real feat with Lance Stroll. The Canadian, who reached the finish line 9th, has recovered two positions following disqualification of Hamilton and Leclerc due to technical irregularities, thus gaining the points area for the first time since the Belgian Grand Prix.
Alonso behind him, then retirement
After a period of crisis that had always seen him behind his teammate, sometimes with gaps that had also raised some doubts, the 24-year-old would also have finished ahead of Fernando Alonso even if the latter had not been forced to withdrawal due to a technical problem with the bottom, at a time when the Spaniard was still in the top-10. In this way, both Aston Martin drivers had redeemed themselves from a complex weekend up until Sunday’s race, with interventions by the mechanics in parc fermé which had therefore made the departure from the pit lane inevitable.
A weekend off to a bad start
Stroll, who had also ended his Sprint early due to a brake failure, commented on his performance in the press release released by the team shortly after the race, at a time when the disqualification of Hamilton and Leclerc had not yet been decreed, with the Canadian then momentarily in 9th place before the latter transformed into the seventh final position: “Finishing ninth after starting last in the pitlane is a positive result after a difficult couple of days here at COTA – he declared with satisfaction – it’s positive to be back in the points after some difficult races. The set-up changes we’ve made to optimize performance have definitely taken us in the right direction, e.g we were much more competitive. I had good grip in the corners, especially once the Medium compound was fitted, and I managed to make some overtakes at Turn 12. We will work hard to carry this momentum into Mexico next week.”
Undeserved retirement for Alonso
An overall unfortunate weekend for Alonso who, after the problems he suffered from qualifying onwards, was unable to gain the satisfaction of a top-10 finish after an excellent recovery: “It was a great comeback race for us, with a much higher pace than the AMR23 – commented the two-time world champion – we wanted to score some points starting from the pit lane, but unfortunately we had to retire with some damage. It’s a shame because today in the race we looked quite competitive. Today we collected a lot of useful data and comparisons on the two cars, which will be fundamental in view of the next races.”
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