Fernando Alonso tried to give room and get back on Charles Leclerc in F1 Azerbaijan GP but it didn’t work, as Carlos Sainz adds on their fight.
Aston Martin had a relatively low-key F1 Azerbaijan GP as per their standards of 2023 with no podium finish. The DRS issues did hurt them a bit as Alonso found himself at the fag end of Top 5 rather then being in the Top 3 where he has been so far.
His work was cut out in the grand prix. He couldn’t do much at the start where he was still behind Ferrari pair of Leclerc & Sainz and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. He cleared the Brit in the pit stop as the Mercedes driver lost out when safety car was deployed.
Alonso found himself behind Sainz on re-start and he quickly wasted no time to pounce on him and get fourth to stack behind Leclerc. It was then a long road of pushing the Monegasque which he tried to do. He got close on couple of occasions too.
But Leclerc’s pace was enough to fend off Alonso, who tried to slow down a bit to launch a late attack. However, the degradation game that they wanted to bank on never came with the hard tyres doing well enough to help Leclerc keep third.
But the overall fight that Alonso could put up against the Ferrari was promising as he felt that Aston Martin still did well on a weekend which was average for them. And also, his DRS was working well finally which is good news for the races ahead.
Good pace despite no podium –
Alonso: “Yeah, it was very good. I think I’m very, very happy with the result and the pace of the car. I think the weekend was not maybe as competitive as the first three races. But even with that, I think today in the race, the car pace was very good, very strong. And yeah, we challenged him for the podium, only one second to Charles. So that’s very encouraging for us. I think in a bad weekend, let’s say for an Aston, we are fighting for the podium against one of the best weekends for Ferrari. They were on pole position on the sprint race, pole position for the main race. And they were just one second in front of us on Sunday. So good news.”
Strategy against Leclerc –
Alonso: “When you got within one second, it’s just enough with the amount of downforce you lose to be in a very risky situation of locking up a tyre or touching the wall. So yeah, I had two or three moments when I was that close to Charles. So I said I will back off a little bit and in the last few laps, I tried to get close again. But yeah, he had a little bit of pace in hand. And it was not possible.”
Pass on Sainz on re-start –
Alonso: “I don’t know, I had a lot of grip on that restart. So yeah, I could have him probably in Turn 3 already, but then it was into Turn 4. Not a clear explanation, but the car was working really well today. It was good. Yeah, it was crucial because to overtake the Ferraris is never easy, so that overtake put me in a train with Charles and it was easier the race after that.”
DRS working –
Alonso: “It worked today? So yeah, a lot of speed. I’ve never been that fast on the straight for the whole weekend. So yeah, I I was happy with everything as I said on the car. The strength of the car, for whatever reason, is still the tyre degradation, which is seems a little bit better than the others. Unfortunately, with the safety car, we all put the hard tyres and that tyre was very robust until the end. Without that safety car I think the Ferraris were struggling a lot in the first stint. So maybe Miami is a better chance for us.”
Fending off Alonso –
Leclerc: “He was pushing. I knew what his intentions were at the beginning, because he always does that. Trying to keep the tyres at the beginning of the stint and push at the end. So I tried to do the same. And at the end, it was close, but not enough for Fernando today.”
Passed by Alonso on re-start –
Sainz: “I think seeing where Fernando finished, I think he was always going to finish ahead of me today. But yeah, nothing new. Really, the first stint on the medium, I looked like I found a bit of pace back. And then when as soon as I put the hard on my struggles of the weekend appeared again, and I just had to bring home a P5, always very on the limit of crashing or feeling like I was losing the car. So yeah, a pretty long race and mentally stressful after the struggle of the weekend. But brought home the P5. I’m sure we will find out why this happened this weekend. And I’m sure in Miami, we’ll be back on form.”
Here’s Fernando Alonso passing Carlos Sainz: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2023-azerbaijan-grand-prix-alonso-snatches-p4-from-sainz-with-late-dart-past-the-ferrari-on-the-restart.1764601515949945464.html
.@Charles_Leclerc finished P1, P2 and P3 all in one in #AzerbaijanGP! From sitting in @SChecoPerez's P1 seat in cool down room, he stood in @Max33Verstappen's P2 place on podium – they swapped the flags later on. #F1 | @MsportXtra pic.twitter.com/56tRFKntf5
— Darshan Chokhani (@DarshanChokhani) April 30, 2023
Here’s how F1 Azerbaijan GP panned out