F1 | McLaren, Alonso: “Excellent car, but we lost too much on the straight”

La McLaren archive the weekend in Mexico with a point in the safe, which bears the signature of Fernando Alonso, 10th at the finish line. The Spanish driver expressed himself as follows about his performance after the race: “Overall it was a good race, considering that we started from the back of the grid and that we got some points. The car was excellent all weekend: fast cornering, easy to handle and balanced. We lacked a bit of speed on the straight to attack or defend, therefore we were stuck behind a Sauber for half the race and then we couldn't overtake Magnussen. As soon as we got out of the DRS zone, we became very vulnerable and eventually there was nothing that could be done to keep Hamilton behind. We fought hard, trying to brake a little later each time and defend the position, but we couldn't hold on to ninth place and save that point. It was a good fight but it's difficult when you don't have the same car. Now we go to Brazil, where we will try to score more points.".

More in the shade Stoffel vandoorne, who instead finished 12th. This is the analysis, in some ways bitter, of the Belgian pilot: “Today we had an incredible start, I was 13th after the first lap. But we immediately saw how much speed we were missing on the straight. We couldn't even keep a Sauber behind us and couldn't overtake, so we lost ground. But our pace in clean air was very positive, the feeling with the car was good. Starting from the bottom, we knew it would be difficult for us. On paper there were definitely chances to score points, but we were penalized too much by our speed on the straight and by the Virtual Safety Car. The positive aspect is that we managed to cross the finish line, but our deficit on the straight is still too big.".

Federico Martino