Alonso speaks of missed opportunity for Alpine after Verstappen retire
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- GPblog.com
Fernando Alonso was incredibly fast this weekend, but it did not lead to good results. The Spaniard's frustration is high and he states that in the first three Grands Prix of the year a lot has gone wrong. He himself is not really to blame, it is mainly due to technical mishaps and bad luck.
In qualifying, Alonso was on his way to a time that was good for a spot among the first four. In sector three, however, he had to abort his flying lap due to problems with the hydraulics. A day later, the two-time world champion had bad luck with a virtual safety car. Many of his competitors took advantage of a free pit stop and so Alpine's tactics fell apart.
Alonso sinks his teeth in
"I have no words, honestly, it's hard to accept that everything has gone wrong so far. But anyway, there are still twenty races to go, luck will compensate sooner or later in these 23 races and on another day we will be lucky," Alonso told Spanish newspaper AS. He is currently fourteenth in the world championship with two points.
Just like in Saudi Arabia (where he was in sixth position after his engine failed), precious points were lost in Melbourne. Alonso states that he and his team were aiming for sixth or seventh place. "Considering what happened in qualifying, the podium was easy, also because Max crashed out. George is on the podium, but I that we were a lot faster than Mercedes on this circuit. We missed an opportunity."
Esteban Ocon was luckier on Sunday. The Frenchman finished in a solid seventh place. In three Grands Prix he managed to score twenty points already, good for seventh place in the World Championship at the moment.