Fernando Alonso has reopened the jar of essences. When everything seemed lost for the Asturian, the magic flowed again in the two-time world champion to teach a lesson to all of what it is to relaunch a race on equal terms at the Azerbaijan circuit. The Alpine driver edged out as many as four drivers to finish sixth, his best result since his return to Formula 1.
After Max Verstappen’s tremendous accident, the race came to a complete halt and restarted with only two laps to go. All the drivers changed wheels and started from the starting grid line. Alonso, starting from the dirty area, started like a colossus, overtaking before the first corner a Daniel Ricciardo who during the race had ripped off the stickers thanks to his impressive pace. The Australian, however, saw the Spaniard’s expertise pass him in the blink of an eye after the first corner. Additionally, Hamilton went out on a rookie error allowing Alonso to climb to eighth place.
There was still the best and Fernando, far from being satisfied, attacked with soft wheels until the end. In turn two he took advantage of the fact that Carlos Sainz went long to beat him inside the curve and place seventh. Ahead, the Asturian smelled blood with the fierce war that Norris and Tsunoda were experiencing at that time. The two-time champion waited patiently for both of them to get in the way to get closer and deliver the final blow.
Alonso did it in the seventh corner miraculously regaining four positions in half a lap. Then, he resisted like a wild boar the attempts of Tsunoda – as Alpha Tauri runs – to regain his place to enter the finish line with the best result of the season after a horrible race by the Alpine team, saved by the safety-cars and the changes of Fernando’s strategy after Ocon’s abandonment. The Spaniard saved his team’s pride by scoring and making it clear that all things being equal, he is capable of doing wonders like these.
