The Asturian rider finished seventh, after having started from eighth place on the grid.
Fernando Alonso was seventh in the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix and completed his worst weekend of the season to date in terms of results. In addition to yesterday’s complicated qualifying session, where Alonso damaged the flat bottom and jeopardized his result, it has been added that today in the race the Aston Martin AMR23 had no rhythm.
Having scored six podium finishes in the seven races to date, Aston Martin was ready to fight for another top-three finish at Alonso’s home race. However, everything got complicated from Saturday.
The Asturian could only qualify ninth, after damaging his flat bottom in a Q1 track exit, but he finally started eighth today, benefiting from a penalty for Gasly,
In the race, Alonso had no rhythm to fight for the top five places. The two soft tire stints of the two-time world champion made him lose his place even with Yuki Tsunoda and Guanyu Zhou, positions that Fernando recovered at the end of the race.
“It was a difficult race, because at no time did we have any rhythm, and that was the problem, more than the tyres. We were not going fast enough either on the soft or on the hard ones at the end,” Alonso told DAZN F1 after the race. career. “George (Russell) passed me and that got us out of rhythm, which was good for me to have newer tires at the end.”
“In the end, we finished in sixth and seventh position, which is good for the team, but we didn’t have a chance to catch up with Mercedes or Ferrari, and we have to see what happened. I thought we would have more pace, because we could have started in the first or second row yesterday, and I thought the Top 5 was possible. The Mercedes have surprised us again,” he said.
Alonso, yes, was able to offer good overtaking to the public who had gone to Barcelona with the dream of victory 33. Fernando fought with Zhou, Tsunoda and Ocon, who he made a nice pass on the finish line, in which the Frenchman he moved to defend himself when he was overtaken by the Spaniard, while the public rose from the stands.
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Fernando also had the option of fighting for sixth place with Stroll, but on 14th he chose not to attack so as not to jeopardize Aston Martin F1’s double ‘top 10’. “Yesterday I already damaged a flat bottom and today it was better to stay as we were. It was better that we didn’t risk either of us, neither me to overtake him nor him to defend himself,” he said.
The negative point of the improvement of Mercedes, in addition to the danger that they will remain ahead in the next races, is that the German team has surpassed Aston Martin F1 in the Constructors’ World Championship, with which Mercedes is now placed in second place of classification.
Alonso will try to make up for this difficult weekend in just two weeks, when the Canadian Grand Prix will take place, where Aston Martin F1 is expected to make improvements.