Fernando Alonso He seemed to touch glory again with a brand new third place after an excellent career, being the first of the mortals. As happened in Bahrain, the Spaniard finished behind the Red Bull of max verstappen and Checo Perez. However, the joy was going to turn into disappointment minutes after the Big prize.
Everything is due to a sanction from the FIA about the Spanish pilot. After finishing the corresponding 50 laps, it was decided to punish Fernando Alonso for making a mistake in the pits in the five seconds that he was serving after starting incorrectly on the grid at Saudi Arabia. A decision that has not sat well with the Aston Martin.
“I made a mistake and when they told me that I had to penalize five seconds I thought: ‘I have to drive faster to make up for it’. But I have to review it. These guys give me energy and have pushed in qualifying and in the race. The Red Bull are a bit far from us, but the rest is behind. So perfect”, he wielded after what happened.
(Fernando Alonso loses his 100th podium in Saudi Arabia: sanctioned for breaching the regulations in the box)
“I don’t care. If they took it from me before I got on it would have mattered more to me, but after the celebration, the champagne, having all our sponsors on the podium… And after 35 laps they had to think about the penalty and They apparently didn’t have time…”, stressed Alonso while speaking to the media after concluding the podium ceremony.
A bitter way of expressing the feeling of rejection of the penalty handed down by the FIA. The Spaniard was visibly angry at the organization’s attitude, which was published once the race finished and deprived him, once the ceremony in Jeddah, of reaching three figures on podiums.
🗣️ @alo_oficial: “If they told me that we had a ten second penalty, I WOULD HAVE SHOT MORE”
And just as he’s saying it, Russell comes in to tell him he’s sorry. What a moment! 😂#SaudiDAZNF1 🇸🇦 pic.twitter.com/XcimxH0XVz
— DAZN Spain (@DAZN_ES) March 19, 2023
“We are seeing why the team does not agree. Let’s see what happens in the end. Let them take away my dancing, I enjoyed the podium. The FIA has not been very good because they had an hour to give the penalty and they have done it everything a bit bad”, emphasized in DAZNoutraged that it happened that way.
still happy
However, it was not all bad news for him. Fernando Alonso analyzed everything that happened throughout the 50 laps around the finish line. Even so, he wanted to highlight several positive aspects that happened at the weekend, where they have become the main alternative to Red Bull.
(Victory for Pérez in Saudi Arabia ahead of Verstappen: Alonso is fourth and Sainz sixth)
“The objective this weekend was to see how competitive we could be here, at a very different circuit to Bahrain, and we were the second fastest car. We were able to control the Mercedes and the Ferrari all the time, we were even able to increase the distance with them when and how we wanted”, explained Alonso.
“I could also do more, but since they hadn’t said anything… It was a race to control Mercedes and Ferrari, and even so we were faster than them. I have a very good taste in my mouth. I know that now it hurts a little, no to be on the podium. Maybe I haven’t assimilated it yet, because as I’ve been with the emotion on the podium, I’m still at the top”, he added.
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