The two-time world champion was forced to start the 71-lap grand prix on Sunday from the back of the grid after his Alpine went into “total shutdown” ahead of Saturday’s sprint race, which had to start from ninth place.
Alpine put Alonso in with the hard tire to start, which he used to get into the top 10 while the middle runners around him made their first stops.
He made his first pit stop on lap 27 for another set of hard tires, and then made the planned change to the media when he ordered the virtual safety car for Carlos Sainz’s expired Ferrari on lap 57 .
But the vibrations of these tires “after the first sector” on his lap outside forced him to pit again on the next lap, which dropped him to 14th position before fighting to get a single point in the 10th position.
Alonso believed it was possible to finish sixth, just behind teammate Esteban Ocon, before the problem arose, but said he was “very pleased and optimistic about the car’s performance” in the race.
When asked at Motorsport.com why he made a third stop, Alonso joked, “To have a better time and more overtaking!
“It was a tricky race, at first we were all on a DRS train and it was pretty hard to get ahead, but I felt a lot faster than the cars around.
“In a way, I’m very pleased and optimistic about the performance of the car today, because the cars we’re normally struggling with today have been very slow compared to our pace, so that’s a very good sign.
“Once they pitted, we had some outdoor and maximized our strategy, hard-hard-medium.
“We went under the VSC and went to P6, because I was right behind Lando [Norris] with new tires doing 1m08s at the end, it was very easy to beat them.
“Maybe end up right behind Esteban [was possible] which could be surprising for the team, fifth and sixth, especially starting last.
“And I felt great vibrations in the tires immediately after the first sector, so we decided to pit back. I went out on the P14, nine laps to the end and got back on the P10.”
Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522, Esteban Ocon, Alpine A522
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Alonso was under investigation by race commissioners because his Alpine was unsafe on his pitch during a pit stop, but was cleared after the ace.
The Spaniard said he did not know why when he arrived at the media corral after the race.
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At one point, Alonso was compressed to the straight between curves 3 and 4 as he overtook AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.
When it happened, Alonso moved his finger at Tsunoda, and the Spaniard later told the media that he did not understand the actions of the AlphaTauri rider.
“I was on the grass, so I don’t know why he was pushing me so far,” Alonso added. “I was with the DRS on the pitch, in full force, and there was no way to defend.
“I was already next to each other, so I don’t know. I think that kind of thing, better avoid it at 300km / h, but it went well.”
The head of the alpine team, Otmar Szafnauer, says the cause of the vibration remains unknown at this stage, but has ruled out that this is a problem with the adjustment of the wheel itself due to a new system lock that the computer has.
“I still don’t know what was causing the vibration,” he said. “But we went in, we looked around and we had a new set of media, which was good, and we switched to the new set of media, he came out and the vibe went away.
“I don’t know if it was wheel weights or what. We have a wheel mechanism where once it’s tight, it’s tight, it doesn’t come off.
“It’s something new for us, the FIA approved it. Tim Goss knows exactly how it works, and once the wheel is put in it can’t be disengaged unless you take it off.”