Fernando Alonso once again showed his intelligence by finding the best way to do Turn 1 at the exit. Although the key to all this was, without a doubt, the most striking and was conceived hours before the start.
In Spain we use an expression to highlight someone’s intelligence: “He’s smarter than red mice”. There is no consensus about its origin. One of them affirms that it refers to field mice, which have a reddish color and are smarter than city ones, the other, which refers to some goblins from Murcian folklore, so smart that they have not been seen.
Be that as it may, the ‘Ratón colorao’ Alonso once again displayed his mischief by revealing how his extraordinary start in the Miami Grand Prixespecially when braking for turn 1.
The drivers parade
In all the Grand Prix, before the start of the preparation procedure for the start of the race, the drivers carry out a parade for fans.
Generally, it is done with everyone on the trailer of a truck. But sometimes other formulas are used, as was the case in Miami. Specifically, each driver completed the exhibition lap aboard a sports car driven by other people. And, this time, this made the event take too long.
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“I had a good start, but then I opted to go on the outside at Turn 1. I saw it in the drivers’ parade”explained Fernando Alonso when asked about the four positions gained in the first lap.
“Today was the slowest parade in history. And thanks to that, we stopped on the outside of Turn 1, so I was able to watch it for about 20 seconds. And I felt like I had a lot of grip, there were no chips, no stones, nothing, and it was very clean.”the Alpine pilot revealed.
“So I said I’d go on the outside at Turn 1. Everyone was braking very carefully on the inside, and I moved up a couple of places there.”, he acknowledged. Subsequently, he touched Hamilton enough to dislodge him and overtake him. Lance Stroll, who was starting from the pit lane with a mechanical problem, was the fourth driver overtaken on that first lap.
Verstappen also takes advantage of it
Fernando Alonso was not the only driver to take advantage of the extra grip on the outside of Turn 1.
Max Verstappen also took advantage of that area to beat Carlos Sainz, who with Charles Leclerc in front could not defend himself adequately. Although in his case it was not premeditated.
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“I didn’t know what to expect at the beginning, but we had a good launch. And I saw an opportunity to go wide at Turn 1, so I tried it. And luckily, it worked.”explained the winner of the race.
«I was surprised by the grip I found in turn 1. But he got worse as the race progressed », he lamented, although with the lead in his hands it did not matter.
Source: autosport