Fernando Alonso remarks on “right place at the right time” nature of Aston Martin's result in Qatar
Fernando Alonso recently talked about how he took every opportunity to move up the grid in order to score decent points in the 2024 F1 Qatar GP. He mentioned that he capitalized on various DNFs and penalties encountered by top drivers.
The Spaniard had a decent qualifying session at Lusail where he secured P8, ahead of Sergio Perez. Right from the start of the race, he defended against the Red Bull driver who was desperate to score decent points in the last few races of the season as well. In the middle stint, the Aston Martin driver lost several places and was out of the points.
After Alex Albon's mirror fell off the track and several drivers suffered punctures and other damages from it, Alonso capitalized on the situation to keep pushing and get back into points. After Norris also had a late pitstop which hampered his race, Alonso was able to secure P7 at the end of the race.
Speaking to the media afterwards, he explained that he was ready to take any opportunity that came his way during the race, particularly because he saw a chance to score decent points. He added that when he's far from the points positions, he typically avoids risky maneuvers as they're unlikely to yield positive results.
“The P7 is better than we anticipated, obviously we capitalised on some of the action in front of us, some DNFs, some penalties, so we were ready there to take the opportunity and happy for that,” Alonso said.
“So yeah, you have to be there. Sometimes when we are P14, P15, even if there is something happening in front of you, you don’t take the opportunity, so we were in the right place at the right time today,” he added.
Fernando Alonso addresses the car issues that cost him places at the 2024 F1 Qatar GP
Fernando Alonso revealed an issue with his Aston Martin AMR24's energy deployment system after the first safety car concluded at the 2024 F1 Qatar GP Qatar GP.
Speaking to F1.com, the two-time world champion explained that the car seemed to be stuck in "safety car mode" even after the race resumed. He speculated that this could have been the reason why the car was not deploying all the energy to the electric motor.
"In the beginning we had some issues. One known problem, we were struggling with something on the car, I think it was deployment of the energy or something. After the safety car, the car is still thinking that we have a safety car so we don't deploy all the energy on the electrical parts. So we are lacking a bit of top speed and we are vulnerable at that part of the race," Alonso said.
After a decent performance at Lusail, Fernando Alonso currently stands in ninth place with 68 points to his credit.