Alonso: "A Ferrari made us lose four tenths, almost unacceptable"

Alonso was the only Alpine in qualifying this Saturday in Miami, after an accident involving Esteban Ocon in FP3 that left the Frenchman unable to take to the track in the session that decided the starting order for Sunday.

The Asturian got through Q1 improving on his last lap, and seemed on the way to accessing Q3. However, he did not improve enough on his final attempt in Q2 and was eliminated with 11th place on the grid.

A warning appeared on the screens that an incident between the #14 Alpine and the #55 Ferrari, Sainz’s, had been noted, but it was later clarified that no investigation was needed.

However, Alonso did not think the same and, without mentioning Carlos Sainz, assured that the red car had ruined his classification.

“The truth is that it’s a shame, but well, in that last attempt we couldn’t do the lap. A Ferrari was in the middle of the entire second sector, so we lost four tenths. We had been improving six tenths on my previous time, and I came out of turn 16 a tenth faster, so I lost four tenths or half a second with traffic, it’s almost unacceptable,” Fernando Alonso told the DAZN F1 microphones.

When asked how he saw qualifying, he said that “the feelings were good”, but he insisted on that meeting with Sainz in the second sector. “The car has been competitive all weekend. Unfortunately we had traffic in Q2, they bothered us and prevented us from doing the lap, but let’s see if we can recover tomorrow.”

Regarding Sunday, he believes that the Miami International Autodrome is a track where overtaking seems very complicated, but he expects incidents that will make the race rarer and allow him to advance: “It will be difficult to overtake, but we will see. I think there will be a Safety Car, surely.” there will be opportunities. We start 11th on the clean side. We’ll see how many penalty positions they put on the Ferrari [there weren’t any], I think we’ll start 11th and see what can be done from there.”

The two-time champion also made reference to the asphalt of the Miami circuit that they had to repair both before Friday’s day and before Saturday’s, and warned that by 2023 that aspect must be improved.

“The track is breaking up, the part of the asphalt outside the curves. And let’s see tomorrow if it can be rolled wheel to wheel, because there is only one clean line on the track, and by next year hopefully we will have asphalt like in the other world circuits”, he declared.

The photos of Fernando Alonso at the Miami GP 2022 F1

Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522

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Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522

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Foto de: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522

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Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522

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Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Fernando Alonso, Alpine F1 team

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Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522

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