Furious Alonso does not blame Vettel

The FIA had insisted: don't drive slowly in corners 9 and 10. Still, there was a small traffic jam and Fernando Alonso was the victim. He was on his way to qualify for Q3, but was held up by Sebastian Vettel.

Alonso was visibly and audibly angry in the car and made wild gestures towards the German from the cockpit. When he speaks to the press a bit later he has calmed down a bit. He has thought about it and realizes that Vettel can't do much about it either.

"I don’t think Seb could do much more, inside the car, we are relying on our engineers. I guess it was more the team than Seb himself", the Alpine driver is quoted by MotorsportWeek.com. He stresses that the drivers also depend on each other. If there are other drivers out there driving too slowly, you're almost forced to do it too.

Alonso had his sights set on qualifying

Vettel did end up being penalised, but that doesn't help Alonso much. He thought a top-five was achievable. "It’s a big consequence for our weekend, this because even our qualifying tyre choices were made to maximise Saturday. Saturday has been terrible, with P14. I guess the weekend is over for now, for us, but nothing we can do.”