Aston Martin had an up and down weekend in Zandvoort, at times looking set to be McLaren’s closest challengers but also enduring two separate car rebuilds. As a result, getting both cars home in the points can count as a success – even if one driver seemed happier than the other.
Fernando Alonso finished eighth but was left frustrated after rueing some of the strategy calls across the race. Having started P10, he dropped down the order after a poor getaway and soon found himself stuck in a queue of cars.
He started to question the calls over the radio, and the team chose to pit him a second time – even though at that point, it looked like everyone was going to try and go to the end on one set of tyres. As such, he missed out on a cheap stop under the Safety Car, but still picked up a handful of places as others came in for more tyres.
“At the end to be in the points in P8 is great, a nice result but the afternoon was not easy,” Alonso explained.
“The Safety Cars didn’t help, they were all at the wrong time and the wrong place. And yeah, some of the cars that finished in front of us, I think they were significantly slower than us… [like] the Haas [cars], so we lost maybe an opportunity.”
Aston Martin had started the weekend strongly – both cars in the top four in the first practice session, with Alonso then finishing second in FP2. But their pace faded on Saturday as others began to turn up their engines, and so the Spaniard only managed P10 on the grid.
That, coupled with his poor start, is where his race ultimately came undone – but recovering to eighth at the flag is still a decent result.
“It was tough. I think when we were all in the same conditions in Quali, we were just on the edge of Q3 so yeah, we still need to improve,” he concluded.
As for Lance Stroll, he managed to come home seventh despite starting from P19 on the grid and making contact with Gabriel Bortoleto in the early stages. That moment ended up being a blessing in disguise, as the team brought him in for a very early pit stop.
As such, he undercut his way past the majority of the field – and then benefitted when the Safety Car came out. It was a good recovery from his lowly grid slot, and just reward for his team, who had had to rebuild his car not once but twice thanks to crashes in FP2 and Qualifying.
“Shoutout to the team for rebuilding the car Friday night and then again Saturday after the off in Qualifying,” the Canadian said.
“It was a frustrating weekend until that point but we had good speed though from FP1, we were up there and I felt good in FP3, it was just Saturday afternoon that was a shame so it was nice to bounce back today.”
The result keeps Aston Martin in the fight for fifth in the Championship with Williams, whom they trail by 18 points. But they need to be wary of the recovering Racing Bulls, who are just two points behind now thanks to Isack Hadjar’s maiden podium.
