Fernando Alonso has dished out one of the best performances of his career, managing to finish 7th at Baku despite suffering two punctures on the right side of his car, as he made contact with Nico Hulkenberg and Sergey Sirotkin on Turn 3 of the first lap.
While most drivers would have retired after such an incident, Alonso managed to somehow get to the pit lane, and despite having caused some floor damage to his MCL33, Alonso fought on.
Alonso was particularly pleased with his effort and commended his team also for keeping their head in such dire circumstances.
“Very crazy. Another seventh place but I think today was the result of persistence and pride, because I think no one would have reached the pit lane, first of all. They would have parked the car and if they could reach the pit lane they would have retired. But we didn’t park or retire the car and fought for every tenth, every lap, close to the walls.
“I’m happy with the points. It was probably one of the best races that I’ve done in a long time, or the best race of my life. I reached the pit lane thanks to a miracle. I didn’t have two wheels or front wing or floor or anything.” Alonso said after the race.
After getting back on track, Alonso still had some reservations about his race pace, but conceded that the safety car helped him gain places.
“They changed the tyres and they told me the car was heavily damaged so I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish or that I would be very slow. But I started overtaking cars and then with the safety car I gained some positions in the end. I haven’t seen the car or talked to the team.
“When they said significant damage, I feared the worst. A surprising result with a car that was damaged.” Alonso concluded.
