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Mexico 'one of best races' Alonso: "But once again car 14 stops"
It is not a great season for Fernando Alonso. The two-time world champion has been plagued by technical woes all season. Alonso now has five DNFs to his name, he experienced a lot of bad luck with traffic and crashing cars around him and Alpine did not always have the strategy right either. In Mexico, a nice classification seemed in the cards, until the engine gave up the ghost yet again.
Alonso was overtly frustrated when he had to pull his car over at the first corner in the closing stages. Twenty laps before the flag dropped, the Spaniard lost one cylinder, leaving him running on five. In the end, that proved a bit too much. Six points were lost.
Baal day for Alpine and Alonso
"Car 14 stops before the chequered flag, so I think now we lost about 70 points. But it’s pointless to talk about this once more, so let’s see. Only two races to go and then a new chapter," Alonso still tries to hide his irritation somewhat from the cameras of Formula 1's official website.
Two fifth-place finishes in Britain and Belgium were his best performances in 2022 so far. Yet they were not his best races, according to Alonso himself. "I think Austin and Mexico have been the best races from a personal point of view. Pace-wise, I was like 20 seconds or something like that ahead of the McLarens and my team mate. I felt fast, but once again Car 14 stops.”
That Alonso so outspokenly named his own car by repeatedly mentioning '14' has to do with the fact that Ocon has fewer issues this year. It is therefore the biggest reason why the young Frenchman still manages to stay ahead of his teammate in the world championship. Alonso currently stands on 71 points, 11 less than Ocon.
