Fernando Alonso gave a show this Sunday in Saudi Arabia, but left without any award. In the first laps, with a great battle against his teammate, who started fifth for the Asturian’s sixth. They passed and reviewed up to three times, in the end the two-time champion came out winning, and the team had to intervene because as the Frenchman is also tough, dangerous rivals began to approach from behind.
The virtual sixth did not seem so after the safety car because Hamilton and Magnussen had not yet changed their tires. Alonso fought with the Dane, he also overtook him on the straight on lap 44. The next time he crossed the finish line, the Haas returned it, very fast. The Alpine stuck to their wake and, suddenly, the worst happened: breakdown. The team studies the problem, although everything points to the engine, and Alonso could barely reach the pit-lane entrance, park it, get out of the car, hitting his helmet with his hands and shaking his head. In a great race on his part that would have made him the best of the rest, not counting Mercedes as ‘mortal’, he ran out of points. Ocon was sixth.
“We continued to investigate, the car stalled and we reached the pit lane idling. A shame, because the race was going well, I had a good pace and the tires felt good. It was a coincidence to be seventh on the grid on Saturday because the fifth was the actual position. We saw him in the race, he had rhythm, we lost sixth position and there are many points that go. The pace is there, we have to leave happy with that”, said Alonso after the race
On the fights on the track, especially with Ocon: “He made us lose time, in Bahrain we also did it with different strategies. Today we had the same tires and my car had a little more pace. Now thinking about Australia. With the performance of these two weekends, it is incredible that we only have two points. Feelings better than results, let’s see if we have more luck in the next races”.