Fernando Alonso believes he would have fought Daniel Ricciardo for fifth at yesterday’s Italian Grand Prix, had his Ferrari not suffered a mechanical failure.
This is the first mechanical failure Alonso has suffered since the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix where he retired from eighth place. Alonso was seventh for majority of the Grand Prix however dropped behind Perez and Bottas after the round of pit-stops.
The Spaniard was forced to retire on lap 29 in front of the team’s fans. He was adamant post-race he would have been able to fight Daniel Ricciardo for fifth.
“It was possible to be fifth to be honest because I think we were quicker than Ricciardo and we were in front of him in that [early] part of the race,” Alonso said.
“With the first stint we were very competitive, but unfortunately we could not overtake because when four cars are in a group the last three cars all open DRS.
“When we pitted we found ourselves behind the train of cars with no possibility of overtaking.
“Thirty laps from the end we tried to change a little bit the approach and I backed off from the cars in front, and then at that point started having the engine problem.
“[Tyre saving] could work quite well as it did for Ricciardo, so I’m still thinking it was possible to at least try to attack at the end, with a little bit more pace, better tyres. Probably it was more possible than [at the beginning].”
