The start of the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix 2022 featured two multiple world champions, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. The Spaniard and Brit benefited from power unit change penalties from Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Esteban Ocon, and started from third and fourth respectively.
On the climb to the Raidillon through Eau Rouge, the Mercedes man managed to catch the slipstream of the Alpine to get parallel on the Kemmel straight and try to overtake on the outside of Les Combes. However, his daring maneuver led to a touch between the two that the FIA stewards investigated.
The Englishman was forced to abandon due to a suspected water leak before reaching Blanchimont, although the FIA described the touch as a usual race incident in the first laps. A visibly upset Fernando Alonso described his rival as an “idiot”, something for which Lewis Hamilton will not apologize despite acknowledging that it was he who caused the accident.
In Alpine, through their boss, Otmar Szafnauer , they wanted to come out in defense of what is still their driver, and they blamed the seven-time champion for the touch that caused damage to the French car: “I think it was Lewis’s fault [Hamilton]. a lot that the stewards and the FIA said that in the first couple of laps they would leave the race free so that [the drivers] were not so cautious.
“I also think that Lewis did not leave enough space, but, it is good that he raises his hand and says that he made a mistake, he rarely does that, he usually leaves space, although we can all fail, “said the American director.
The head of the Enstone team acknowledged that Fernando Alonso’s car received some damage, although he wanted to wait for the A522 to return to the pits to check if it suffered a possible loss of time that compromised the pace of the Spaniard: “I don’t know, I don’t I’ve seen it. There’s a little bit of damage, but nothing structural.”
About the race, Szafnauer explained that the Silver Arrows were still superior, so reaching the podium if the Ferrari and Red Bul failed seemed almost impossible. The head of the French structure was realistic, and expressed that the result achieved by his pair of pilots was the best possible after seeing the circumstances.
“Fernando [Alonso] had a little run-in with Lewis, luckily it didn’t damage his car too much and he kept going. Being fifth is probably the best thing he could have done,” he said. “I was sixth before Leclerc’s five-second penalty, but I think, looking at the cars in front, I don’t think we could have beaten any of them.
“We were a bit quicker than Mercedes on pace over one lap this weekend, but then in the race they are a bit quicker than us. You have to see why that is, although it could be that as they go up temperatures, they are better, and when it is cold they are not so good”, sentenced the director of Alpine.
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