UPDATE: Alonso handed 5-second penalty

It was not a happy day (again) for Fernando Alonso. Where so often this season the equipment let him down, during the sprint race in Brazil there was an incident with his teammate Esteban Ocon, no less.

The Frenchman - like Ocon - had to report to the stewards afterwards. Interestingly, Ocon arrived with team manager Alex Permane and Alonso came all alone. On the face of it, the love between Alonso and Alpine - the former Renault - seems to have simmered down quite a bit. The Spaniard seems to be looking forward to switching to Aston Martin soon, where he signed a multi-year contract. The Spaniard had to report to the stewards afterwards - just like Ocon. The stewards eventually give him a 5-second penalty for the incident and two penalty points on his license.

Alonso frustrated

That impression was reinforced by his interview at Viaplay. There, he admitted to being quite frustrated. "Yes, I will look at it again (the incident with Ocon). But obviously it's one more race and then it's over. I'm looking forward to Abu Dhabi. I almost went into the wall in Jeddah, you remember. Also Budapest with the start. Now today. So there's nothing to talk about, it's just one more race."

According to Alonso, a better result than 15th would certainly have been possible. "It's far from ideal of course, that you fight with your teammate. We lost momentum there. There was no safety car, and a sprint race is too short to come back. So yes, I was disappointed. But the speed of the car was very good today. We got back to spot 15. If we continue like this tomorrow, we can still score good points. Let's hope so."