Fernando Alonso arrived at the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix of Formula 1 with the intention of adding more points after the ninth place he achieved in the last appointment in Bahrain, however, a problem in his Alpine caused him to leave early .
The two-time champion started from seventh place on the grid, and managed to get ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes, but his teammate, Esteban Ocon, closed him down under braking at the first corner and the Spaniard was unable to pass the Briton.
After the first bars, Alonso approached the Frenchman until he was in his slipstream, and in the overtaking attempt, Ocon took the Spaniard to the wall in an action that he did not like in the Ensonte wall. After a fight in which neither gave their arm to twist, the team forced the Frenchman to maintain his position once the two-time world champion beat him.
When the situation calmed down, Alonso showed superior pace to his teammate, and was locked in a battle with Kevin Magnussen for eighth place when the race resumed after Nicholas Latifi’s safety car. At that moment, when he had certified the overtaking, Alpine ‘s began to lose power, something that led to the final withdrawal just over 10 laps before seeing the checkered flag.
“We continue to investigate what happened because the car stopped and we arrived at the pitlane practically idling, and the truth is that it was a shame, because the race was going very well,” Alonso explained when he spoke to DAZN after getting out of the car.
“I had a good pace, the tires felt good,” said the two-time champion. “Yesterday it was a coincidence that I finished seventh because there were people who used the tires used in Q3 trying to be faster, so fifth would have been real.”
The Asturian was involved in a three-way fight with Ocon and Valtteri Bottas, something that caused him to lose a lot of time compared to Russell , who escaped more than ten seconds behind in sixth place.
“Today we saw that my car had a bit more rhythm, it was going well, and we lost that sixth position, which was a lot of points,” he continued. “In Bahrain too, so two races, two problems, but the pace is there, and I think we have to go away happy in that sense at least.”
Regarding the fight with his rivals and with his teammate , Alonso commented: “He made us lose time, but in Bahrain we also fought in the first stint. We had different strategies (the two Alpines), and today we had the same one, my car seemed to go a little faster today.”
“I tried to pass him (Ocon) and go to focus on Bottas , because I thought he had a little more speed. Thinking about Australia, we lost points in Bahrain and now here, or rather, with the performance we have had in both weekends it’s a bit unbelievable that we only have two points,” said the Spaniard.
“I think that sensations are better than the results today, so let’s see if we have that luck in the next grand prix,” Alonso said.
