John N
Given the speed they have shown this season, it’s strange that Spain was only the second time both Alpine cars scored points in a weekend, with a performance that almost felt like a win to Fernando Alonso.
A misunderstanding in terms of timings late in Q1 saw Alonso eliminated early on Saturday, and teammate Esteban Ocon started 12th. Alpine decided to change Alonso’s power unit, demoting him to last on the grid, but he climbed through to ninth place to score for just the second time this season.
“I’m very happy,” Alonso said. “Finishing in the points is always the target every weekend. After the bad qualifying and the decision to change the engine overnight, it was like sacrificing this weekend [as we] know it’s very difficult to get points.
“So now that we got this P9, it feels like a victory nearly, and it feels good. Hopefully, we can start from here, maybe five, eight, ten consecutive races in the points, which is what we need.”
The result was all the sweeter for Alonso because he believed he had no chance of a good result in Barcelona. “It was magic, it was special to race in front of the supporters, even though [Saturday] when we changed the engine and started last, in a way it hurts because it’s your home Grand Prix and inside your head, you’re like ‘okay, we sacrificed this weekend changing the engine, etc.’
” Being in the points feels very good. I think the race was well managed – the pace and the tire management. I had two warnings going outside of Turn 12, so I was worrying that I could make another mistake and have a penalty or something, so I was very careful on that!”
Although he’s satisfied with his results overall, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso has not yet had a race weekend that met his expectations.
“It can only go better from that starting position!” he said. “I did enjoy it, for sure, but we have again another weekend where we finished the race feeling that we could have had two or three positions better from what we achieved.
If qualifying was good or if the start was good, or if the pit stop was good, there is always something in your head. So, I’m looking forward to a weekend where we maximize everything.”
Ocon believes he achieved his goal of finishing in the points at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix after moving up five spots on the starting grid and finishing seventh. “It’s been an awesome race, very pleased,” Ocon said.
“I think there’s nothing we could have done better, Valtteri [Bottas] was too fast in front, we beat McLarens, we had a mega start, mega first stint, good overtakes, and Fernando is in the points as well from last so awesome.
I can’t be happier with this one, and it has a special flavour. It’s very important [to score with both cars], for sure this is something we are lacking a little bit for a couple of races, so it’s good for our championship. We need t figure out a way to qualify a little bit, so it’s better for Monaco.
