Fernando Alonso was back on the podium in Canada after a poor weekend in Spain. While the Spaniard celebrated his 104th career podium in Montreal, a rather special guest decided to join him.
Following his disappointment at the Spanish GP, Alonso promised fans that he would return to the podium in the very next race. While the 2x champion could not challenge race winner Max Verstappen as he expected, he did enjoy a duel with his former rival Lewis Hamilton. In the end, he finished P2, behind Verstappen and ahead of Hamilton.
Most neutral fans started cheering for dark horses Aston Martin since Alonso started piling podiums in 2023. However, out of all their new fans, Alonso and Co. didn’t expect a dog to be trackside, celebrating for them.
Dog joins Fernando Alonso for photo
Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll, and the Aston Martin crew gathered around their garage for some post-race photos after the 2023 Canadian GP. As the team celebrated Alonso’s P2, a sniffer dog joined them for the celebratory click.
The Aston Martin Twitter admin shared a video of the dog joining them for a pose alongside Alonso, with the caption “Good Boy”. The dog even did some tricks to cheer the team- who grabbed their 6th podium of the season- up.
Funnily enough, the sniffer dogs scared the BBC pundits conducting a post-race debrief. One of the dogs near the Aston Martin garage started barking at the pundits, deterring them.
The podium was welcomed with open arms by the Spaniard and his team, who have shown a lot of improvement since the Spanish GP. However, Alonso hopes that the next time he visits the podium, he takes that extra step by finishing P1.
Alonso hopeful of beating Max Verstappen for 33rd race win in 2023
Fernando Alonso proved his critics wrong with another podium in Montreal. However, the Oviedo-born driver is still a long way from his goal of claiming his 33rd race win.
Alonso’s best chance to claim a race win was in Monaco. However, the driver was pipped from the provisional pole by Max Verstappen. Plus, he was unable to extend his challenge in Sunday’s race due to the tricky weather conditions.
The 2x champion arrived in Canada hoping to put pressure on Verstappen. Yet again his plan was unsuccessful, but Alonso is enjoying his time with Aston Martin and remains hopeful of winning a race later this season.
He told Sky Sports after the race “At the moment I’m enjoying it. There is more to come. I want to win a race this year. Today I thought it was possible it Max had a little mistake or a bad pit stop but we were a little bit too far behind to force that error.”
However, the 41-year-old is confident about the team’s progress. He added, “But the car is going in the right direction. More opportunities will come.”
Alonso has predicted Hungaroring to be the next track that can favor Aston Martin’s cars. However, Verstappen displayed spectacular racecraft in the 2022 Hungarian GP, winning the race after starting P10. It won’t be an easy challenge for the Spaniard hoping to end his decade-long wait for a victory
