Fernando Alonso also spoke after the sprint race and time trial of the Miami Grand Prix that a person’s nationality matters in the decisions of sports inspectors, and that he would surely have been punished for what Lewis Hamilton was not. The two-time F1 world champion also spoke with Mohammed bin Sulaym, the president of the FIA.
Saturday’s Miami Grand Prix turned out horribly for Fernando Alonso. In the sprint, he had a puncture in the first corner, and although he was able to continue the race, he had no chance to score points from then on, while he only finished fifteenth in the time trial. And with that, he will obviously have a hard time in the main race as well.
Ricciardo excelled, Magnussen worked out with Hamilton, Verstappen did his usual sprint
As for the early evening events according to Hungarian time, in addition to Alonso, three others, Lewis Hamilton, Lance Stroll and Lando Norris, were involved in the incident. The latter two had to give up the fight, while the seven-time world champion was investigated, since it was primarily his attack that started the chain reaction. Immediately after the wave, Alonso announced that his former teammate would certainly not receive a penalty because he is British. In the end, the Mercedes driver escaped the sanction, at least for this reason, and the 42-year-old driver accused the decision-makers of bias even after qualifying.
“I feel that nationality matters. I will speak Mohammed [bin Szulajmmal, az FIA elnökével], with the FIA. I need to make sure there is nothing wrong with my nationality or anything that could affect any decision. Not only for me, but also for the future generation of Spanish pilots. They must be protected.”
It should be added that Alonso hit his teammate before Hamilton arrived. So the seven-time world champion had nothing to do with this directly, but probably indirectly, because the Spanish driver saw that it was coming from the inside. “I had to leave room because Hamilton came from the inside and didn’t control the car,” he explained. “If I do this, I will definitely be punished.”
Fernando Alonso and team principal Mike Krack having a conversation with FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem [via @PHortonF1/@SMitchellF1]
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As for Alonso’s serious accusation, of course we do not want to take a position on it, but it is a fact that the 32-time F1 race winner received two serious penalties in the recent period. In Melbourne, he braked in front of George Russell, which eventually led to the British driver’s elimination, and in Shanghai, he crashed into Carlos Sainz during a battle, receiving 3 penalty points for both incidents. Comparing this to, for example, Stroll punching Daniel Ricciardo behind the safety car at the Chinese Grand Prix, Alonso may indeed feel the unfairness of the stewards’ treatment of him.
However, the decision-makers have nothing to do with the fact that the time trial of the Spanish competitor was horribly successful. He barely made it to Q2, as Valtteri Bottas, who had already been eliminated, was only one century behind him, as he was unable to complete turn 1 ideally. He was unable to improve his position in the second stage, so after the sprint qualification he also lost to Stroll in the normal time trial.
No one since Alain Prost has accomplished what Verstappen did in Miami
“Our timing was a little disappointing,” he said. – I was fifteenth in both Q1 and Q2, so my pace was not very good. We’ve made some changes to the settings since this morning. Looking at the time, they probably didn’t work out the way we expected and we’re a little less competitive than usual. There was a lot of understeer in the high speed corners and oversteer in the low speed ones and I felt like the car had no grip on any of the fast laps. It depends on two tenths whether a person is eighth or fifteenth. We are at the wrong end of this group, and in the last couple of races we have been at the good end. It will be a tough race. With Lance starting eleventh, hopefully we’ll get some points. With my fifteenth position, it will be very difficult.”
