BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso earned a season-best result at the eventful British Grand Prix with a fifth place finish, after taking part in an exhilarating battle for the podium positions.
“It was a fun race today and we are happy to finish in fifth position. I was hoping there would be some drama at the end, and we might have sneaked a podium with all of the action, but it was fun to be fighting amongst it inside the top five places.”
Although pleased with the fifth place result, Alonso said that fourth would have been in the cards had Charles Leclerc been given a penalty for weaving across the circuit in his late-race battle with Lewis Hamilton. Alonso was given a penalty for this offence last time out at the Canadian Grand Prix, and therefore felt Leclerc was deserving of the punishment as well.
“I think our final position should realistically be fourth because I saw Charles [Leclerc] weaving multiple times in front of Lewis [Hamilton] and, compared to what happened to me in Canada, I guess it’s not allowed and should be a penalty.”
Alonso was happy with the performance of the A522, and felt he was at his most competitive so far this season– a momentum he hopes to ride for the races to come.
“Looking back at the weekend as a whole, I think the car was very good and I felt more competitive than in any other races so far this season. We executed our race very well and showed consistent pace. I’m expecting us to keep this up and hopefully maintain our competitiveness again over the next few races.
“I must say congratulations to Carlos [Sainz] on his first win and, also, I’m glad Zhou is OK after his incident at the start. It shows how far safety has come in modern Formula 1 racing.”
“All in all, it wasn’t a smooth weekend with some of the car issues in Q2 and today during the race” – Esteban Ocon
Team-mate Esteban Ocon saw his chances at a points finish slip away on lap 38, when a fuel pump issue took hold and ended his race. He had narrowly avoided retirement on the race start, when his car was damaged as a result of the chain of first lap incidents. The car was repaired under the red flag, and he was able to gain positions from his starting place of fifteenth up to eighth before his ultimate retirement.
“The most important thing to take out of this race is that Zhou is OK after that massive crash. It happened right in front of me, and I was lucky to avoid most of it, but then I sustained damage on the right side of the car from contact with Alex [Albon].
“I have to say, the guys did an incredible job getting the car repaired and ready for the race restart, so thanks and well done to them. We did well at the restart and the pace in the car was good. A fuel pump issue on lap 38 ended our race unfortunately and we had to retire the car.”
In reflecting on his weekend, Ocon said that the team will need to review the issues he had faced on Saturday and Sunday that hindered his qualifying result and led to his retirement. He was excited, however, to see the great result Alonso was able to achieve for the team.
“All in all, it wasn’t a smooth weekend with some of the car issues in Q2 and today during the race, so we’ll need to look into all of this closely. It was a weekend with a lot of learning and I’m happy for the team with the solid points from Fernando today. Onto the next race in just a few days’ time.”
