Alpine’s objective for this weekend has been met and both drivers have scored points. Fernando Alonso has added his third consecutive GP in the points, widely surpassing Esteban Ocon.
Alpine scores points again with its two single-seaters after failing to do so at the Monaco Grand Prix, allowing the Anglo-French team to score for the fourth consecutive race.
Y Fernando Alonsoas is usual when the Spanish rider has no problems, he was far superior to Esteban Ocon, achieving the seventh final position and increasing his loot of points for the third consecutive race.
“We made a good start, a good strategy, a good pit stop”
The Spaniard also becomes the driver with the longest career in the history of Formula 1, surpassing Michael Schumacher. 21 years, three months and eight days since Fernando Alonso debuted with Minardi at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix.
To become the driver with the most Grand Prix races, he will have to wait a little longer, since at the moment Alonso has 342, eight less than Kimi Räikkönen.
Seventh position to one stop
In any case, the really important thing this Sunday in Baku was the seventh place achieved by Fernando Alonso. An Alonso who, taking advantage of the presence of the virtual safety car in the first third of the race due to the abandonment of Carlos Sainz, he has modified his strategy.
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The initial plan was to take advantage of the medium tires to lengthen the first stint, but Alonso and Alpine have decided to bring the stop forward by taking advantage of the VSC to lose less time in the manoeuvre. And it has worked, well Spanish, has been able to gain positions and place seventh.
But the second part of the plan was the most complicated: endure the rest of the race with the hard tires. Something that Alonso has done to perfection, containing the McLaren in the last laps of the race.
Tires, the main challenge
The last third of the race was not without difficulties, as Alpine had opted for a very fast single-seater on the straight at the cost of unloading the car’s downforce. That made the tire degradation greater than expected.
“We suffered more than we expected with the tyres, we had very little downforce. On the straight we were going very fast and that helped us to maintain position, but at the same time I think it made us wear out the tires a lot. For me, keeping the rear wheels alive was the biggest challenge today.”
The McLarens expected an error from the Spaniard at the end of the race, but Alonso knew how to take advantage of his top speed to defend himself in the important sections of the circuit.
“Unlikely,” Alonso said when Melissa Jiménez told him that the McLarens expected a failure from him. “We knew we had this extra speed and we knew that they expected some failure, but I always tried to do the last three corners well, calmly. He believed that he could hold the position ».
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At last everything went perfectly in Alpine and things went well from start to finish, something that Alonso has valued very positively. “We had a good start, a good strategy, a good pit stop.. When you do that in Baku, you usually gain some position because of the chaos in front of you.”
“Happy, we finished seventh. Barcelona, Monaco and Baku with good points, to continue in Canada”, concluded the Spanish driver, who is now tenth in the drivers’ championship with 16 points.
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Photos: Alpine F1 Team