Alonso’s comeback
The Miami Grand Prix he seemed already marked even before leaving Fernando Alonso, 15th in qualifying on a circuit that offers few overtaking opportunities. Instead, once again, the Spaniard managed to disprove expectations by recovering to the points zone and obtaining one ninth position final after a good duel with Esteban Ocon in the closing stages of the match.
A challenge between two former teammates that gave satisfaction to both. While the Frenchman took the first point for Alpine this season, the two-time world champion also finished in the top-10 for the first time this weekend, during which he also rekindled his historic rivalry with Hamilton in and off the track: “After yesterday’s difficult day (Saturday, ed.), it was nice to come out of this weekend with some points for the team. We were a bit lucky with the timing of the Virtual Safety Car and then with the Safety Car grouping the cars together. We therefore took the opportunity to put on the medium tyres, and this changed our strategy a bit, allowing us to have some good battles. I had fun and it seems that in the race we showed that we performed a little better than in qualifying. We still have some work to do to improve our performances in the next two races. I’m happy for Norris. It’s always special to get your first win.”
10 seconds to Stroll
In fact, the opposite of what was seen in qualifying occurred in the race not only for Alonso, but also for his teammate Lance Stroll, this time in the negative. The Canadian, one step away from reaching Q3, did not complete his comeback in the points, finishing 13th. In the official ranking, however, Stroll is 17ththis is because of 10 second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage in the fight with Albon: “It wasn’t a great race – He admitted – we opted for an early stop and then, a few laps later, the Safety Car was called, so the cars that were left out benefited heavily. This compromised our strategy. From then on I managed to pass a few cars and crossed the finish line in P13, but then I was penalized for overtaking Alex. We’ll look at onboards later, but It seems like a strange penalty to me. We will work hard over the next two weeks to find a bit more pace in the car for Imola.”
