The Spanish driver wanted to continue the positive dynamics of the last few weekends, in which he managed to score points with his Alpine in five consecutive races, but from the beginning of the Austrian Grand Prix he ran into problems. In qualifying it was some damage to the bottom of the A522 that deprived the Spaniard of a better position on the starting grid for Saturday’s sprint appointment, for which he was forced to start from ninth place, which became eighth with the sanction against Sergio Pérez.
However, a problem with his car even before the traffic lights turned off caused the two-time champion to fail to start, meaning that on Sunday, in the main race, he would have to start from last place, with the exception of Bottas, who did it from the pitlane . In this way, the man from Oviedo got on the asphalt with the intention of coming back, something he did from the first moment, moving up several positions in the opening laps and extending his stop in the pits.
On the medium tire he was able to stretch the stint to ride a new set of hardtails and get into the mid-zone contention, just behind his teammate, Esteban Ocon, in sixth at the halfway point of the race, although he still It remained to endure with a compound more used than the cars around him.
However, Carlos Sainz’s retirement after his Ferrari caught fire caused the virtual safety car to come out, thus opening a window to stop again. The man from Oviedo stopped, but a failure at the stop caused them to commit an ‘ unsafe release ‘ that was investigated by the FIA, in addition to being forced to go through the pitlane again on the following lap, dropping many positions.
Finally, he crossed the finish line in 10th position , while his teammate could have finished 5th, something that can hurt seeing how the weekend unfolded. Speaking to the press, he joked at first: “It was to have more fun and get ahead.”
“It was a complicated race, at the beginning we were all on a DRS train, and it was quite difficult to pass, but I felt much faster than the cars around me,” Alonso assured. “So in a way I’m very happy, and I’m optimistic about the performance of the car, because with the rivals that we normally fight, they were really slow compared to our pace, it’s a very good sign.”
“Once they’ve pitted, we’ve had some fresh air and maximized our strategy, doing a hard-hard-medium. We pitted with the Virtual Safety Car and we were sixth, and with Esteban [Ocon] there, I could It will be amazing for the team to be fifth and sixth, especially starting last.”
The Spaniard also explained what happened at that stop on consecutive laps: “I felt big vibrations in the tires after the first sector so we decided to pit again. I started 14th with nine laps to go and recovered to 10th.”
When it was put on the table that he had committed an ‘ unsafe release ‘, the Alpine man did not want to get too wet: “I don’t know, I just got here [to the media area], so if it is being investigated, no I know the cause for now.”
Leaving behind his incident in the pitlane, he also carried out a risky overtaking action on Yuki Tsunoda, whom he passed at high speed with two wheels outside the circuit: “I was on the grass, I don’t know why he pushed me so much because I was with the DRS on the grass, hard, and there was no way to defend. It was already side to side, so I don’t know. I think that kind of thing, it’s better to avoid it at 300 km/h.”
