Fernando Alonso believes that the penalty he received for a false start at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix ultimately did not affect the outcome of his race, with the Spaniard stating that Aston Martin were “very, very slow” on a day that he finished outside of the points.
After just missing out on the top-10 shootout in Saturday’s Qualifying, Alonso lined up in P11 on the grid for Sunday’s race – putting him directly behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in P9, the Australian having crashed out during Q3.
Piastri faced further troubles when he moved too early at the start, leading to his car going into anti-stall. The championship leader – who hit the wall later on Lap 1, putting him out of the race – was handed a five-second time penalty for the false start.
Meanwhile, Alonso reacted to Piastri’s movement off the line ahead of him and was given the same penalty, which he later served at his pit stop. This dropped the two-time World Champion down the order before he ultimately crossed the line in P15.
Reflecting on the start incident as well as his race as a whole in Baku, Alonso explained: “I reacted to Oscar’s movement and obviously we both went before the lights unfortunately.
“I think probably it didn’t change much on the race outcome because we were very, very slow today and we need to improve for the next one.”
In terms of the learnings that he and the team can take from what was a tough weekend in Azerbaijan, Alonso admitted that there are still some other circuits coming up during the rest of the season that he anticipates will be challenging for the AMR25.
“I think we have a car that has certain characteristics, not the ones of Monza, not the ones of Baku, and I think not the ones of Vegas or Mexico, so I expect in Vegas and Mexico to be at the back of the grid,” the 44-year-old said.
“There are another four races that hopefully we take opportunities [in] and we score a few points.”
Aston Martin slipped from P6 to P7 in the Teams’ Championship following the race in Baku, with Alonso’s team mate Lance Stroll also unable to score points as he ended the event down in 17th place.
“We just stayed out for a long time hoping for a Safety Car on the first stint and then it never came, so that was kind of the end of our race,” the Canadian summarised afterwards.
With the F1 paddock moving on to the Marina Bay Street Circuit for the next round on the calendar between October 3-5, Stroll is hopeful that the squad can enjoy a better outing, adding: “Hopefully Singapore we’re more competitive and we can have a better weekend there.”
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