Fifth place for Fernando Alonso marks the best the Spaniard has been able to achieve so far this season, but Alonso was still not happy with the McLaren’s pace in Austin this weekend.
The majority of the race was fairly quiet for Alonso, things only getting heated in the closing stages of the race, when he duelled with his old team mate Felipe Massa and fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr.
After starting twelfth, Alonso made it up to ninth in the first part of the race, then earned another couple of places with a ”free pit stop” during the virtual safety car.
During the closing stages of the race, things started to get interesting as he closed in on the battling Massa and Sainz. Alonso described the two different techniques needed to get past the very different cars:
“Our tyres were in better condition than the Toro Rosso’s and we took advantage of that. The last couple of laps were very intense, as we had some extra speed so we tried hard to overtake. It was quite easy to overtake the Toro Rosso as they’re slow on the straights, so you just need to open the DRS…
“To get past the Williams today you need to overtake them in different places, like tight, slow-speed corners, and quite forcefully, and it was tough but hopefully enjoyable for the fans.”
The “forceful” overtaking of Massa caught the eye of the stewards. Alonso moved up the inside of Massa and it appeared the Brazilian didn’t see him, turning onto Alonso. The duo’s wheels touched and Massa ended up with a puncture. The incident was looked at after the race, but the stewards decided no driver was to blame for the incident.
Though fifth is the best Alonso has managed to achieve so far this season, retirements ahead of them mean it wasn’t entirely an achievement of the McLaren-Honda machine.
“Our result today is nice for motivation, so I’m happy with fifth, but we gained a couple of positions because of other people going out, and our pace hasn’t been great all weekend here – so we need to understand the reasons for that.”
Alonso has moved past Massa in the Drivers’ Championship, currently 10th with three races to go.
