Fernando Alonso finished P7 in the F1 Singapore GP after starting from P10 on the grid. He put in a solid race, despite a slow pitstop causing him to lose almost 10 seconds, and brought him out right behind Isaac Hadjar. In the closing laps of the race, Alonso was able to close down on Lewis Hamilton, who was struggling with brake failure. However, the gap was too big, and he was unable to get close enough for the overtake. This saw him cross the line P8, but he was subsequently promoted to P7, bringing home 6 points for Aston Martin, after Hamilton received a post-race penalty
A good race
Speaking after the race, Fernando Alonso shared how he enjoyed his time at the F1 Singapore GP.
“I think it was a good race. I mean, the car was performing well in the race, good race pace. The soft was probably better than expected, and it lasted longer and had a good pace. That gap we opened in the first stint obviously vanished on the pit stop, and we had to recover in the second part. The car is still very fast in the second.”
“I think the team did a good call going to the mediums at the pitstop while all our competitors were on the hards. I could make some moves in the second part of the race thanks to the more grippy style.”
Battles with Hadjar
After the slow pitstop when changing onto the medium tyres, Alonso was faced with an unexpected battle with Isaac Hadjar. The rookie was not willing to give up his position easily. Their battle provided some exciting side-by-side action, as well as a few close calls. Whilst he enjoyed the racing, Alonso felt that some of the moves made by the rookie were unnecessary.
“Sometimes in battles, you need to know when it’s better to fight and when it’s not. Probably the final result of the race could be worse for both for sure, but for him in particular. Some movements at 300kph are a little bit over the line in Singapore. But everyone races as they want, and there was no contact, nothing like that. So everything is fine. They have a very fast car; they don’t have many points, so it’s not a big problem.”
