Alonso denounces late announcement of penalty: 'FIA had plenty of time'

Fernando Alonso is happy with Aston Martin's confirmation in Saudi Arabia. The AMR23 is really competitive and can compete for podium places on a regular basis. Still, he regrets that his second third place in a row has been taken away from him by the FIA.

"I will love to keep third but the most important thing this weekend was to check if the car was competitive on another circuit. We were controlling the Mercedes and Ferraris on the pace which was a nice surprise. I take that from today," Alonso tried to keep it positive when speaking to ViaPlay. "For us, it was important to check the car in different conditions."

Alonso frustrated at late penalty

After the podium ceremony, it was revealed that the two-time world champion was given a 10-second time penalty, because the team had touched the car while redeeming the time penalty. "It's more an FIA poor show today, then disappointment from ourselves. You can't apply a penalty 35-laps after the pitstop. They had enough time to inform about the penalty."

He continued: "If I knew that I could have opened an 11 second to the car behind. Today, I think we didn't put on a good show for the fans."