Fernando Alonso news: Spaniard despondent after failing to challenge Mercedes in Melbourne

On Saturday, Alonso had a reliability issue and crashed out of Q3, claiming afterwards that he had a chance at pole due to his speed.

Fernando Alonso in a file photo; Credit: Twitter
By Nilavro Ghosh | Apr 11, 2022 | 2 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

Fernando Alonso expressed his disappointment at not being able to challenge Mercedes in Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, claiming that Alpine’s pace was superior to the Silver Arrows’. And the two-time champion admitted that a string of bad luck cost him a podium finish at Albert Park.

On Saturday, Alonso had a reliability issue and crashed out of Q3, claiming afterwards that he had a chance at pole due to his speed. On Sunday, he started on hard tyres and worked his way up to P4 before the Lap 23 Safety Car allowed the majority of the medium-tyred runners to pit without losing time. Taking advantage of the Virtual Safety Car on Lap 39, Alonso switched from hards to mediums, but they wouldn’t last – and he had to pit again on Lap 53, relegating him to P17 and last.

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“Yes, the Safety Car in the wrong moment of the race, that was our killer,” the Spaniard said. “A little bit speechless, because I think today, we could have been on the podium to be honest. If we could have qualified third or fourth yesterday with Max out.”

“George [Russell] being on the podium – I think we were a little bit faster than the Mercedes this weekend – so we lost an opportunity here and also in Jeddah when we were doing a very good race. It seems the way it is at the moment, [we are] a little bit unlucky. Twenty races to go and in some of them I will be super lucky, I guess.”

Looking forward to Imola

Alpine’s only points-scorer was teammate Esteban Ocon, who finished P7 on Sunday, and Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi said the team would continue to improve for the races ahead, with Imola on the calendar on April 24.

Read More – Australian GP 2022: First race where we controlled the gap, says Charles Leclerc

“Overall, we’ve shown we are competitive, and we will keep building on the good base that we have, especially by bringing some upgrades to upcoming races to enable us to keep fighting higher up the grid. For that, we will work on consistency in order to get both cars into the points. We move onto the next one when we race in Europe again in Imola. Our team is very much in the mix, and it is up to us now to remain highly motivated in this championship contest,” Rossi said.