Why Alonso was so upset by Lawson’s driving – and his payback was a waste of time

Fernando Alonso was so infuriated by Liam Lawson’s driving in yesterday’s sprint race he promised to give the RB driver payback in the qualifying session later the same day.

Lawson pointed out the two-times world champion did exactly that as soon as the qualifying session began.

Alonso’s aggravation began when Lawson cheekily passed him on the first lap of the race. The RB driver started one place behind the Aston Martin and got onto his tail when Alonso went off at turn four on the first lap, a snap of oversteer putting him wide as Oscar Piastri overtook him.

Lawson forced Alonso to compromise his line into turn nine, then pounced on the Aston Martin on the inside at turn 11. It was a strong move, Lawson forcing Alonso onto the run-off at the exit of the corner.

As they accelerated down the back straight, Lawson fought hard to defend his newly-gained place, reacting to Alonso’s bid to claim the inside line for turn 12, covering him off on the straight. They entered the corner side-by-side, Lawson used the full width of the track at the exit, forcing Alonso to back off again. Alonso continued his attacks through the following sequence of slow bends but Lawson positioned his car carefully, covering the inside line at turn 15.

The pair spent the following laps stuck in a ‘DRS train’ behind Piastri. But on lap five Lawson locked his front-left tyre at turn one and Alonso was back on him. As they approached turn 11 Lawson’s race engineer Pierre Hamelin told him: “Battery is good, you can press and hold overtake when you want to have a go.” But he was now focused on Alonso behind rather than Pierre Gasly ahead of him.

Alonso feinted towards the inside at turn 11 but Lawson covered him. At turn 12 Lawson repeated his line from the first lap, but ran slightly wider, exceeding the track limits. Alonso prowled on his outside at turn 13, again at 14, but Lawson was all over the inside at 15 again. Finally the RB driver closed the door on his attacker at the exit of the high-speed turn 18 right-hander, obliging Alonso to lift as he did.

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However that exchange left Lawson more than a second off Gasly, and no longer able to use his DRS. Alonso closed back in for another attack and this time succeeded in claiming the inside line at turn 12. Lawson retaliated at the exit, however, and again demonstrated precise and uncompromising racecraft, leaving Alonso a car’s width and no more at the inside of turn 13, forcing his rival to back down rather than risk a collision. If Alonso seemed unwilling to force the issue, it was likely in the knowledge he already has eight penalty points on his licence, and any more would put him in severe danger of incurring a ban.

Meanwhile Esteban Ocon had closed on the pair of them, and took advantage of Alonso’s badly compromised line to pass him at the exit. What happened next finally tipped Alonso over the edge: After being subjected to several laps of firm defending from Lawson, the RB driver left the inside line uncovered at turn 15, and Ocon mugged him, the Alpine driver gaining two places in the space of three corners.

“Man the AlphaTauri is such an idiot,” Alonso exhorted, referring to the RB by its 2023 name.

Unlike Charles Leclerc’s remarks on Lando Norris at the same corner later in the race, this wasn’t Alonso accusing Lawson of breaking the rules. Rather, the Aston Martin driver was expressing frustration the RB driver fought him so effectively then left the door wide open for Ocon. The stewards found no fault with Lawson’s driving.

By now Alonso was 17th, three places lower than where he started. At this point he appeared to give up on his slim chances of scoring a point. He fell into the clutches of Alexander Albon, who passed him on lap 12, and they finished in that order.

“Obviously there was nothing really to fight for,” was Alonso’s assessment of the race afterwards. “So we took a little bit of a free practice two approach, learning a little bit about the tyres, about the pace for tomorrow.” He also offered a withering criticism of Lawson’s driving when he spoke to Spanish-language television, pointing out it was not himself but the RB driver who was fighting for his F1 future.

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According to Lawson, Alonso also indicated he’d dish out payback for his insubordination. As Lawson saw it, this came less than four hours later at the start of qualifying for the grand prix

The pair found themselves in the same running order as the queued to leave the pits before qualifying started. As they rolled away, Alonso immediately tried to pass Lawson in the pit exit, then darted up the inside of the RB at turn one.

“Okay, that’s Alonso,” said Hamelin as Lawson navigated the winding first sector. “He’s doing exactly what he said he’d do,” Lawson observed. “Yeah, don’t stress about it,” Hamelin replied,” forget it.”

However if Alonso thought he was likely to compromise Lawson’s preparations to set a lap time by overtaking him on their out-lap, he was mistaken. RB never intended Lawson to complete this first run, they were taking advantage of the opportunity to squeeze extra running in for him. Before they even left the pits, Hamelin told Lawson not to complete the lap:

“Obviously when we abort this lap we keep an eye on traffic, people will keep pushing behind you,” he said. “Yeah, copy that. Just let me know when to go charge on.”

Alonso has retaliated against drivers who have aggravated him in most dramatic ways earlier in his career, notably at the Hungaroring in 2006 and 2007. Even approaching his 400th race, he remains as unwilling as ever to cede even the slightest ground to a rival, though his response was more restrained and less effective on this occasion.

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