Despite finishing outside of the points, McLaren driver Fernando Alonso has labelled this year’s US Grand Prix as “one of the best races” of his career.
Having qualified 9th on the Grid, Alonso’s race got off to a poor start with the Spaniard being caught in a collision with Felipe Massa at the first corner, leading to a puncture and a trip to the pits for a fresh set of tyres. This meant slipping down to the back of the grid and trailing by more than a minute behind the leading pack.
Alonso soon had the opportunity to fight back thanks to Marcus Ericsson’s stricken Sauber needing assistance to be removed from the track, resulting in a Safety Car period that saw Fernando unlap himself and position his McLaren ready to attack at the restart.
Powered by the new Honda power unit, Alonso pushed his way into the top five with just 10 laps to go before he experienced a sudden loss of power, thought to be caused by a fuel system sensor failure.
“To be running one minute behind the penultimate car on lap two, and then be running as high as fifth position with 10 laps remaining was quite a feat,” Alonso said.
The loss of power saw the McLaren drop back down the field into 10th position, where the car stayed until the final lap before losing the final point’s position to the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.
“After such a strong recovery, it was a shame that a mechanical issue in the closing laps put us out of the fight. That meant my feelings after the race were more sad than happy – but we can go away and continue to try to improve these issues.
“Finally, congratulations to Lewis [Hamilton] on winning his third world championship. He’s been very strong all season, and that’s a great achievement. Hopefully next year we can give him a little bit of a tougher time than we have this season!”
