Alonso: “A second place is worth a victory”

Fernando Alonso is beaming after his second place in his home race. The victory did not arrive, but thanks to the points the Spaniard is back in command of the world rankings, at 61 points, equal with Sebastian Vettel.

“This second place counts as a victory after finishing the race in Sakhir almost a minute behind the winner, while today we overtook one of the two Red Bulls and fought until the end for the victory”, explained the Ferrari driver. “On top of that, we gained a lot of points over Red Bull and the McLaren drivers, which makes the outcome of this weekend even more positive. At the end of the second stint of the race came the key moment: perhaps Maldonaldo stopped a little early and we remained on the track, but we lost time behind a lapped Marussia for an entire lap, also because there was a yellow flag on the final part of the main straight".

Alonso protested strongly against Charles Pic, who was then rightly punished by the race stewards. but the race was compromised. “Then, with seven laps to go, I suddenly lost grip at the rear: I asked the team if something had broken because the behavior of the car had changed from one moment to the next, for no apparent reason. However, in the closing stages, Williams was still very fast and, right at the end, we were even lucky to keep second place seeing as how Kimi Raikkonen was catching up to me. This championship is very difficult to interpret with all the different winners and the performances of the top teams going up and down from race to race. We definitely didn't do the best job when it came to designing the car and there's still a lot to do, but we can be proud of how we achieved our full potential, probably beyond the limitations of the car. After two Grands Prix, China and Bahrain, in which we suffered a lot, being on the podium again is very positive and gives us confidence for the rest of the championship. We have to continue to bring updates throughout the season because we are all very close and the smallest thing can make the difference.", concluded the Cavallino driver.

Lorena Bianchi