What was going to be a day of celebrations for Fernando Alonso after becoming the driver with the most Grand Prix races in history turned into a nightmare after a Renault engine failure, as the Spaniard himself reported on the radio immediately. .
The Spaniard started in fifth position at the 2022 F1 Singapore Grand Prix after an incredible session in which he shone with his own light as he was even fighting for pole position, although the performance of his Alpine did not allow him to overtake the favorites , both Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari and Sergio Pérez’s Red Bull, who were in the front row.
From that fifth place, the two-time world champion tried to climb places at the start, but lost against the McLaren of Lando Norris and the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly, but he made up for himself in the first hard braking, when he overtook the Frenchman. From there, in the same position from which he started, the Spaniard stood his ground, holding off the almighty Max Verstappen, who was looking for an epic comeback to try to match him in number of world titles.
Despite being quite a wall against the Dutchman, Alonso wanted to go further, and reported on the radio that it was possible to change soon from the intermediate tires to the dry ones, but just one lap after that, on lap 22, he He was forced to leave due to a setback in his power unit.
As soon as he got out of his car, the A522, the Spaniard was disappointed after another retirement in a race in which everything seemed to be ready to score a good handful of points.
“Another time we’ve lost eight points or ten points, whatever… Throughout the year I think there were already 50 and now we’ve added another 10. Losing 60 points in a championship is unacceptable.”
“I think that for my part I was performing well all weekend and once again everything was cut short due to a mechanical failure,” he added.
His teammate, Esteban Ocon, also left in Singapore, but the situation was very different, as Alonso himself acknowledged before the DAZN microphones.
“It’s true that in this race the two Alpines stopped, but one was 13th and there were zero points, so it doesn’t change much, but personally this year almost everything is changing for me.”
In five days, Formula 1 will return to asphalt to play a new test, a Japanese Grand Prix that the Spanish driver is waiting for with open arms for different reasons.
“The good thing is that now there is no time for anything, I want to be in the car again, Suzuka is also one of my favorite circuits and the Japanese fans too, so I can’t wait to get to Japan, which I am also going to spend a few days resting in Tokyo, because I love it”, concluded Alonso.
