After a poor qualifying run into traffic on their final attempt, Alpine and Alonso decided to change engine on Saturday night to add another power unit for the rest of the season, dropping from 17th to 20th.
There, from the last position, he began to gain positions. At the start, Alonso moved up three places with Guanyu Zhou, Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi, and moved up two more when Lewis Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen touched, to take 15th. He then capitalized on Lance Stroll’s mistake to take 14th, and made a brave move to rob Sebastian Vettel of 13th place.
After the stops and with good pace, he slipped into the top 10, and despite a final pit stop of almost six seconds (5.9s), he managed to finish ninth.
The Alpine driver admitted that changing the power unit was like throwing away the Spanish GP weekend, which makes the final result taste better. “I’m very happy, obviously,” he said. “To finish in the points this season is the goal every race, and after a poor qualifying on Saturday, the decision to change the engine overnight was in a way to sacrifice this weekend, because here starting so far back it’s very difficult to score points. “
“So to be ninth is almost like a win, and hopefully we can start a run here of maybe five, eight or 10 races in a row in the points, which is what we need.”
In DAZN F1 he defined his performance as a ‘race’, and was very satisfied: “Starting last and finishing in the points, you can’t ask for more, it has been a race on our part, tire management, strategy, everything … the last pitstop was a bit too long, but I don’t think I would have changed any positions, so very happy.”
After several races with bad luck where he left empty despite riding in the top 10, finally the points came in a race in which he started last: “I have started fifth or sixth this year in some races and then I have not been able to score because something always happened, and here starting last, changing the engine and, in quotes, sacrificing a little the weekend because I knew it was difficult to score, we have scored, so the world is upside down”.
However, and despite the good feeling of the comeback, Fernando Alonso warns that there is work to be done: “It was good, but we still need to improve on Sundays, I think we are still faster on Saturdays than on Sundays, so we still have to get better at it.”
“Starting from there it could only get better. I enjoyed it, of course, but I think we finished one more weekend thinking that we could be two or three positions ahead. We didn’t manage to make the classification good, the start good, the strategy good. good… there’s always something that… arggg , gets into your head. So hopefully we can complete a good weekend.”
All the photos of Fernando Alonso in the 2022 Formula 1 Spanish GP
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Photo by: Sam Bloxham/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Charly López
Photo by: Carl Bingham/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Carl Bingham/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Photo by: FIA Pool
Photo by: FIA Pool
Photo by: FIA Pool
Photo by: FIA Pool
Photo by: FIA Pool
Photo by: FIA Pool
Photo by: FIA Pool
Photo by: FIA Pool
Photo by: FIA Pool
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Foto de: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Photo By: Andy Hone/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Foto de: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
After the restrictions of the pandemic, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya dressed up for the weekend of the Spanish GP.
“It was magical, special, racing in front of my fans,” said the two-time champion. “Even though it was bad on Saturday and when I changed the engine I started last, which in a way hurts, because it’s your home grand prix and deep down you know you’re assuming to sacrifice this weekend. So being in the points was very good”.
“The truth is that we spend a lot of time in Barcelona, we train a lot here with empty stands, and suddenly, when the circuit fills up in May, it seems different, when you fill it with color, with passion, and it has been exciting to race in front of them. “.
In addition, Alonso revealed that he received two warnings and was one more away from a possible sanction for skipping the track limits. ” I managed the race well, the pace, the tyres… they gave me two warnings for going wide at turn 12 so I had no room to make more mistakes because they would have penalized me, so I had to be careful.”
Finally, when they told him that he could start a good run at the Monaco GP the following Sunday, he commented: “Let’s see… I think it’s been another weird weekend, we haven’t made the most of our potential. being sixth or seventh would have been possible, where Valtteri [Bottas] or Ocon were, so we still need to improve and see if it can be from Monaco”.
