Fernando Alonso attempted to make a one-stop strategy work in his favour but ultimately was forced to settle for an eleventh place finish during the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday.
A slow pit stop not withstanding, The McLaren-Honda driver ultimately was unable to keep up with those in front of him, missing out on a top ten finish by almost half a minute, and was involved in a battle with Daniil Kvyat in the closing laps, of which he came out on top.
Alonso felt his strategy ultimately was the right one despite asking his team over the last few laps to be able to pit for new tyres to put in a charge, a request he was denied in case someone dropped out ahead of him.
“A tough race – we didn’t have the pace to be competitive today,” said Alonso. “I enquired about the possibility of fitting fresh tyres for the last few laps, but I guess it was a little too much of a risk: at that point we were 11th and stood to score a point or two at the end if something were to have happened ahead of us.
“Still, I’d done more than 50 laps on those tyres – and the two-stoppers were a lot faster than me. I guess we were a bit unlucky – we really needed some rain or a Safety Car to put us back in the fight.
“Ultimately, I think our strategy was the right one – it was the quickest way home. Anyway, we’ll now work hard to try to improve the pace for the next race.”
