After starring in one of the best battles of the season so far with his teammate, Fernando Alonso was forced to retire with just over 10 laps to go in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix due to a problem in the power unit of his Alpine A522.
The Asturian was heading towards sixth position after overtaking Kevin Magnussen, with a Lewis Hamilton who had not yet stopped in the pits. Suddenly, however, his car ran out of power and he couldn’t even return to the pits on his own.
The gestures of the Spanish driver as soon as he got out of the car were of frustration, something totally logical, since he was having a great race at that moment and he had in his hands the possibility of scoring points for the second consecutive race.
It should be remembered that this was Fernando Alonso’s second engine in just two races, a new Renault power unit that had been released on Friday after detecting a problem in Sakhir’s engine after finishing the Bahrain Grand Prix in ninth place.
In this way, the Spaniard returned to the pits walking and head down, knowing that a great opportunity was missing. Meanwhile, Alpine remained on the track with the only presence of Esteban Ocon who placed sixth, a clear example of the great possibilities that the French team had to score points again with its two cars, something that would have helped enormously to consolidate their position in the constructors’ standings.
It must be ruled out that Alpine and Renault is not the first time they have suffered engine problems in 2022, already in preseason the Spanish driver was left lying on the track due to a fault in said propellant, while as we have mentioned previously, in Bahrain they also suffered problems, although on that occasion they did manage to cross the finish line.
