Renewing his 14-year-old rivalry with 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso thwarted his chances of a monumental race win by holding off the Briton for 10 laps which enabled his teammate Esteban Ocon to get his maiden F1 win. The 40-year old Spaniard showed impeccable racecraft in a slower Alpine with wearing hard tyres as opposed to a surging Hamilton who had fresher medium tyres. Alonso reminded everyone why he is still considered arguably the hardest racer on the grid. Hamilton wasn't too pleased about Alonso's tactics which were deemed to be fair by all quarters including the FIA.
"He always complains," he told Dutch publication Ziggo Sport. "I didn't hear anything from the FIA, so it was all, okay I think," he added.
Alonso's brave resistance against Hamilton was critical in ensuring he got the race win as once Hamilton passed Alonso he quickly dispensed with Carlos Sainz Jr and by the last lap was within 3 seconds of the race leader catching up at more than 2 seconds a lap.
Alonso finished P5 which was his best result of the year
"I didn't know that probably that was enough to hold the victory for Esteban but anyway it was ten laps from the end, we tried to hold the position but eventually it was not possible. Lewis had an amazing pace in the last couple of laps, it was not enough.
"Honestly, I think that Lewis was making a small mistake in the last two corners, that's my honest opinion. Because he had so much space, you can't take eight laps to pass with that pace advantage," he said.
"And in fact, after changing a few lines, he could pass Carlos [Sainz] immediately one lap after. It was not difficult to pass, but it took him four or five laps to figure it out, that's my opinion. Obviously, for the team the victory is amazing. It was lucky with the first start but we've been unlucky at other races so we will not say sorry that we were lucky," he added.
