Fernando Alonso was, along with the rain, the great protagonist of the previous Singapore GP, in which he became the driver with the most races in the history of Formula 1 . The Spaniard received a tribute from the grid, and was ready to add a significant number of points.
However, the Alpine’s Renault engine let him down again after just 22 laps, when he was running comfortably in sixth position. The two-time champion had to park his blue car at turn 10 of the Marina Bay circuit, unable to finish on a special Sunday. It is the second consecutive abandonment for mechanical reasons, after the one suffered in Italy.
Video: the abandonment of Fernando Alonso in the Singapore GP of F1 2022
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The Alpine #14 has failed Alonso in the last two races, at the Italian GP when he equaled Kimi Raikkonen’s 349 races in F1 and this Sunday, when he was the sole leader and reached a number of grand prix that no one ever achieved in the highest category.
The KO of Singapore hurts more after seeing how the weekend had gone for the man from Oviedo. On Friday he already suffered reliability problems in his car, but on Saturday he shone in qualifying in the wet to achieve fifth place, just behind the two Ferraris, Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Pérez.
Despite a poor start that saw him lose two positions, he quickly picked up the pace and was sixth at the time of retirement, holding back a Max Verstappen who was looking for a comeback. The Spaniard was getting a lot of spotlight when riding in front of the current champion, but his race ended earlier than expected.
Alonso’s retirement caused a Virtual Safety Car that did not last long, as the car could easily be removed from the loopholes. Before him Guanyu Zhou and Nicholas Latifi had retired due to an incident, and after him both Alexander Albon, who destroyed his front wing in a touch against the wall, and Esteban Ocon, who completed Alpine’s double fail also with another apparent problem motor.
