Fernando Alonso said his run to sixth place in the Dutch Grand Prix was “one of his best” performances of the year.
The Alpine driver rose up the order from 13th on the grid by passing the AlphaTauris in the opening laps then making an early switch to hard tyres.“It was for sure 70 laps of qualifying today because we could not relax at any point,” he said. “The start was good, but I lost places on the outside of one so I had to fight very hard to recover some.”
He made a “very early” switch to the hard tyre “because we wanted some clear air in front of us and it was working,” he explained. “We had to push very hard to make that middle stint work.”
As he didn’t make it into Q3 in qualifying, Alonso had a fresh set of soft tyres for his final stint. But soon after he put them on, the Safety Car was deployed.
“When we thought that it was more relaxed part of the race at the end with a good, fresh soft tyre, the Safety Car came and we had to fight again all the last 12 laps. So it was a very demanding race for sure.”
He tried to avoid becoming embroiled in the fight between Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz Jnr for fifth place as he knew the latter would take a time penalty after the chequered flag. Alonso benefited from a similar situation with Charles Leclerc a week earlier at Spa.
“I knew that Carlos had the five-second penalty, so I didn’t want to fight too hard and there could have been problems with the car behind,” he said. “But I think it was a good race and another position gained at the end. In Spa, one [spot] from Ferrari and one here also from Ferrari so we gain always one position.”
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2022 Dutch Grand Prix
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MattDS (@mattds)
5th September 2022, 14:17
As usual, Alonso’s last race is always better than any and all previous races.
ChrisVB
5th September 2022, 14:46
Always on an upward trajectory.
I see this kid going places :-)
Electroball76
5th September 2022, 19:03
A day in the F1 is like a day on the farm. Every meal’s a banquet! Every paycheck a fortune! Every lap a parade!
Dave
5th September 2022, 21:45
He had the 4th fastest lap of the race – yes 4th! Not bad for an over the hill scrub according to armchair racers.
And by the way, he held off the highly touted goldenboy Norris, who was on new softs, with 10 lap old tires for the last 12 laps.
The most complete driver on the grid! Enough said!
Sham (@sham)
5th September 2022, 15:17
If Alonso was as good as he thinks he is, he’d have been Williams most recent wdc. Without ever driving the car.
He has talent, but oh my god what an arrogant man.
ajpennypacker (@ajpennypacker)
5th September 2022, 18:40
Nah, there was nothing arrogant about what was said here. You sound like a certain kind of fan, with a stick stuck up quite high, still caught up with the 2007 narrative and unable to get over it
Jay
6th September 2022, 0:15
perfect
Sham (@sham)
6th September 2022, 11:07
To be fair, anyone who tries to blackmail a team because he doesn’t get his own way is pretty arrogant.
But anyway, it’s only views of people we don’t know by their public persona – so, who knows… Maybe he keeps switching teams because he’s a joy to work with, and the teams benefit by having him there.
Jonathan Parkin
6th September 2022, 18:59
To his detriment it has to be said.
someone or something
5th September 2022, 20:31
@sham
So here’s a compilation of all of Alonso’s quotes from this article:
“It was for sure 70 laps of qualifying today because we could not relax at any point.”
“The start was good, but I lost places on the outside of one so I had to fight very hard to recover some.”
“We wanted some clear air in front of us and it was working.”
“We had to push very hard to make that middle stint work.”
“When we thought that it was more relaxed part of the race at the end with a good, fresh soft tyre, the Safety Car came and we had to fight again all the last 12 laps. So it was a very demanding race for sure.”
“I knew that Carlos had the five-second penalty, so I didn’t want to fight too hard and there could have been problems with the car behind,” he said. “But I think it was a good race and another position gained at the end. In Spa, one [spot] from Ferrari and one here also from Ferrari so we gain always one position.”
And he sums it up as “one of my (our?) best” performances of the year. One of the best. One of his best. Of 2022. Not the best performance of any driver, of all times.
I mean, unless you can name 2 or 3 of Alonso’s performances in 2022 that you think were even better, his assessment is pretty much bang on. A bit of an understatement, even.
someone or something
5th September 2022, 20:33
My point is, you could comb every single word in this article, but the only place where Alonso’s arrogance isn’t 404 is your imagination.
Dave
5th September 2022, 21:47
Not sure if you are criticizing him or not but his race was a masterclass.
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
6th September 2022, 0:10
Arrogance is only a problem when you don’t have the talent to match it. Fernando is incredible. I can’t believe he’s as competitive now as he is. Hopefully he can snag a podium with some good fortune in the remaining races.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th September 2022, 18:18
It’s actually pretty impressive to beat a ferrari per race with the car he has.
GechiChan (@gechichan)
6th September 2022, 7:09
Beating one Ferrari is even more outstanding given he started 13th vs 3rd. Sure, Sainz had the pitstop troubles, but still, Alonso’s race was masterclass.
His weak spot is qualifying though.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th September 2022, 17:55
Yes, he’s always been more impressive in races than quali, even when he was younger, he’s more like prost than senna.
Effwon (@effwon)
6th September 2022, 1:26
Driving as fast as possible for an entire race? My god, what a strategy, has anyone told Ferrari about this?
Joking aside, Alonso’s still one of the quickest guys out there, but still consistently the quickest to blow his own trompeta.
ajpennypacker (@ajpennypacker)
6th September 2022, 6:45
It’s almost as if you knew nothing about the nuances of a race. In case you don’t know it, no, it’s not common to go flat out for long stretches of the race because of a lot of factors, usually tyre wear. But it often it’s also temperature and fuel consumption.
Alonso’s choice to do a long stint on hard tyres meant he had to push really hard to make it work, and it was largely possible due to having hard tyres.
The end of the race was also pushing hard because he had Lando on brand new soft tyres.
There was nothing bombastic or boastful about how Alonso described this race. You can definitely point out other times he had. But not this one.
Effwon (@effwon)
12th September 2022, 20:52
I quite literally said ‘joking aside’, not to mention it being Ferrari as the butt of the joke, not Alonso.
You also needn’t repackage Niki Lauda’s famous quote back to me under the guise of ‘helpfully explaining’ what Alonso meant, he’s a modern great but I’ve never once heard him forgo an excuse to shoulder blame for a poor performance himself, his conceit makes him an easy target, sometimes that might come across as unfair, but there is more than a kernel of truth to it.
superman
6th September 2022, 14:39
Alonso, Russell and Verstappen have been the outstanding drivers of the season.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th September 2022, 17:58
Apart from verstappen, the other 2 didn’t convincingly beat their team mate, alonso has done better in performance but has been unlucky and sometimes has been beaten by ocon on merit, and russell once hamilton started experimenting has simply been slower than him, I expected a bit more from him, especially when you consider hamilton’s age now.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th September 2022, 17:58
Once hamilton stopped* experimenting.