The puncture festival of the Qatar Grand Prix has not been able to with Fernando Alonso, who has returned to the podium after doing it for the last time in Hungary 2014. The Asturian has accompanied Hamilton and Verstappen in the box.
Alpine has achieved its second podium of the season and, after Esteban Ocon’s victory in Hungary, Fernando Alonso He has gotten a nice reward for his hard work with a new podium seven years after taking the last of his career at the Hungaroring in 2014.
The Spanish driver has been third in a Qatar Grand Prix which has had everything, including strategic variations, overtaking and many punctures that have kept the uncertainty until the last moment.
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But none of that has been able to with Fernando Alonso, who has controlled the pace perfectly to keep Sergio Pérez at bay, who with his Red Bull was much faster, but ended up making a second stop for fear of suffering the same fate Than Valtteri Bottas or the Williamses.
“HAHAHA, Olé, Olé!” Fernando Alonso shouted to his team on the radio after crossing the finish line in third position. Seven years, incredible. But we finally got it. We have been close in a few races, but not close enough, “pointed out Fernando Alonso after getting out of his Alpine # 14.
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“Sochi was the last possibility and today I thought that with the red (soft) tires I could attack Lewis (Hamilton, at the start) but I couldn’t. With Checo (Pérez) it has been tight. Very happy with the team, Esteban fifth, it has been a good day for the team », said the Asturian.
Alpine takes hold
Indeed, 25 points that Alpine has added in this race allow it to break with AlphaTauri and take a lead of many others with only two races to complete, making fifth place in the constructors’ championship seems more within reach than ever.
«It has been a race of thinking, we planned a stop from the beginning, but we didn’t know what the wear and tear was going to be like ”, said Fernando Alonso, who saw how several of his colleagues on the grid ended up puncturing.
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“I think we executed the race very well, the stop was fantastic, the team great and the reliability of the car superlative, they deserve it”Alonso reiterated that the virtual safety car of the penultimate two laps has been great for him to consolidate his advantage over Pérez without demanding his tires.
Thanks to those who believed
Finally, his former teammate at McLaren, Jenson Button, asked him if he was enjoying his return to Formula 1. “Yes, I’ve been waiting for it for a long time, I’m very happy”, admitted Alonso after getting the 98th podium of his sporting career in Formula 1. «It was just begging, from 97 to 98 there was a very big pause, so I am grateful to the people who waited for it and who trusted that one day I would be on the podium again.
«Glad that it has been with good competitiveness, without chaos or strange things, sharing podium with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, with all due respect to the others », pointed out Alonso, proud to have shared the podium with the two riders who are competing in the World Championship this year.
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An Alonso who did not doubt his tires at any time, but what his team hoped to achieve. “My tires were fine, but they told me to take care of them because there were punctures, so I was saving half a second in the last 15 laps of the race, in the last sector ».
«They didn’t tell me anything about whether Pérez was going to arrive and he was already a bit flyI thought they knew I was going to get there but they didn’t want me to shoot so that the tires wouldn’t explode, for them fourth place was important. But it was fun and we managed to finish the job “, concluded Alonso.