Aggressive Alonso wants to stay on the “dark side” of Formula 1

Alonso opted for soft tires at the start of the 17-lap contest and jumped from 11th on the grid to fifth on a breathtaking first lap.

He then defended hard, first against Lando Norris and then against Daniel Ricciardo, and received complaints about weaving from the McLaren team.

After both McLaren drivers had overtaken him, he successfully stopped Sebastian Vettel and secured seventh place at the finish with a net gain of four places compared to his qualifying result. At some point his engineer warned of an alleged movement in the braking area.

When asked about this warning by Motorsport.com, Alonso said he was “surprised” to receive it.

“I never moved when braking, I moved at the beginning of the straight,” he said. “But I don’t care to be honest. I’m on the other side for nine races now, so it will be for the rest of the year. I’ll be on the dark side This time…”

When asked if he was hoping for another productive first lap at Sunday’s Grand Prix, he promised to remain aggressive.

“Yeah, I’ll try. The guys at the front are fighting for bigger things than us. So we’re going to be aggressive. We’ve been aggressive for the last three or four races. In Baku it was a two-lap race and we recovered us in many places.

“We made up a lot of places in Paul Ricard and Austria, but they overtook us off-track on the first lap without any penalties. It seems to be a little more difficult here. Let’s see if we can win back places tomorrow and if everyone stays on the right track. “

Fernando Alonso, Alpine A521, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

The Spaniard agreed with suggestions that his first lap had been among the best of his long F1 career.

“Yeah, I think the first lap was one of the best,” he said. “I know that there are many first lap performances that are considered good, especially in the Renault days with a very good start. But this wasn’t just the start of the first lap, it was turns three, four, six, 9. So it was a more complete lap. “

He explained where he made up ground and said, “I think the first round was a combination of several things. The start was better than especially Carlos. It wasn’t much different from Sebastian and some other cars. So Carlos was made at the start.

“And then Sebastian was made into Turn One. And then there were some pretty risky maneuvers. One was at turn four with McLaren and Perez. Then again Perez on turn six, Norris on turn nine.

“I think if I was fighting for the championship I won’t do these maneuvers because there is more to lose than to win. But we’re in a position where we might take more risks and benefit from the performance of the red tires on the first lap. “

Also read:

Alonso admitted that it will not be easy to keep seventh place at the Grand Prix on Sunday.

“We saw blisters on a lot of people in 17 laps today, so tomorrow will be a long race for everyone,” he said. “Tomorrow is pretty warm too. In a normal qualifying we were 11. We start in seventh, I’m not sure if we are the seventh fastest.

“I expect a difficult race, but let’s see what we can do and we will keep attacking.”