As the grille was unoccupied before the start, Alonso’s car was left on the grill over his cats with the tire blankets still attached as the team frantically tried to solve a technical problem with the car.
But as the grid headed for another lap of training due to Zhou Guanyu’s engine shutdown, which saved Alpine more time, Alonso was unable to start from the pitlane because his car did not ‘had lit.
A frustrated Alonso explained that his car was completely shut down on the network, the underlying reason of which has not yet been diagnosed.
“Five minutes before the start we had a total blackout in the car and we were unable to start the car,” Alonso said when asked about the problem by Motorsport.com.
“We tried to turn it on with an external battery, but it didn’t work either, so there’s something bigger and we’ll try to fix it for tomorrow.
“Because they weren’t aligned on the starting grid, we tried to be prepared, but it didn’t work with the second battery either, so like I said, there’s something bigger.”
Alonso will start Sunday’s main race from the back row and feared his “weekend is over” now because of how difficult it seemed to happen in the sprint.
“Yeah, it’s over. The weekend in general, because as we’ve seen here, there are car trains and you can’t pass.
“It will be frustrating with DRS trains and things like that. So we will try to be creative with the strategy and try to get lucky maybe with safety cars or something.
“So, let’s see, but I think it’s going to be a very, very long race behind a lot of cars.”
Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
It is the last setback for the Spaniard after a series of early season retirements, with the 40-year-old having been inflexible at his best in 10 years.
After finishing fifth this season at Silverstone, Alonso is currently 10th in the standings with 28 points, 14 behind teammate Esteban Ocon.
“This year, I probably feel at the highest level of driving, thanks also to the experience, maybe at the level of 2012 and I have 20 points or something, so it’s amazing.
“Maybe we lost 70 points, I guess 60 points if we count all the withdrawals and bad luck and reliability, so it’s a very strange season.
“Although, as I said, I am very proud of my work so far this year, I am driving to the fullest and then I try to work with a team as close as possible.
“If we don’t get the points because all of these reasons are obviously very frustrating, but it would be sadder if they were my mistakes.”