Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Formula 1 driver, believed to score a point at Monaco Grand Prix. However, team informed him of finishing 11th after crossing the chequered flag
The Spanish diver played team-game at Monaco GP in a bid to generate a gap for his team mate Lance Stroll. He wanted to provide a big gap so that he could save is tyres and position on the grid.
Alonso and his team mate worked hard to get the last point. But Stroll got punctured. He had to retire putting responsibility on the Spaniard to secure a point.
The puncture prompted him to work against Daniel Ricciardo, who remained at his tail. He successfully managed his tyres.
“I got confused because when we [built the gap] and Lance was in front of me after the pitstops, they said, ‘okay, we secured 10th.’ We’ve been doing all this for that last point,” Alonso explained.
“Then Lance had the puncture, I said, ‘Oh, now I have all the responsibility in my shoulders with very old tyres to bring this point back home.’
“I was driving for 50 laps thinking that I was 10th.
“And then when I crossed the line and they told me P11, I said, ‘Oh, so, uh, all that stress for nothing.’ But anyway, it kept me alive.
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“I don’t know [why that happened]. When the red flag came out, Lance was P10, I was P12.
“And then at one point they reinstated Sainz in P3, so we were 12th and 14th, we should be 13th and 14th. But Lance was in front of Daniel – that he was not supposed to be.
“So I don’t know in which position I started, and I don’t know in which position I was driving.”
Alonso wants debate on Red Flag Regulation
Alonso believes the regulation that put Sainz on podium shall be debated.
“When there is a red flag and then you change tyres and you go to the end. The only point of interest in a Monaco race is the pitstops that you have to do,” Alonso reckoned.
“If you remove that excitement of a pit stop, then it becomes nothing.
“Maybe it reopens the conversations of when there is a red flag, not changing tyres or be obliged to have the same tyre or something. Because if not, there are certain occasions that the race is compromised.”
