Fernando Alonso is not leaving Austria happy. After qualifying on Friday in eighth position and finishing fifth in the sprint race escorting Lance Stroll, the Asturian driver was the victim this Sunday of a strategic error on the part of the Aston Martin team.
Alonso was running in sixth place when, on lap 15, a breakdown in Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas caused the driver to leave virtual safety car. Aston Martin decided not to enter the first lap with the race neutralized, although they did on the second.
But when the ’14’ was in the pit lane, the race director withdrew the virtual safety carso he lost time in relation to Lando Norris, who preceded him by just a second.
That mistake made Fernando rejoin five seconds behind the McLaren, so lost all options to beat him in the fight for fifth position.
In addition, the Asturian had started the race with hard tires while all his rivals had done so with medium ones, and this stop made his strategic advantage vanish.
After the race, the double champion was asked about Aston Martin’s decision and made it clear that he did not agree with his team.
“I have to watch the race on TV because with the Virtual on lap 13 we have removed the hard ones and we have lost the advantage to go out with them”, said Alonso in statements to ‘DAZN’.
