Alonso thought he had finished in the points: 'All that stress for nothing'

Fernando Alonso thought he was driving in the points for 50 laps at the Monaco Grand Prix. The Aston Martin driver thought his Formula 1 team's 'kamikaze strategy' had paid off, but the Spaniard finished just outside the points in P11.

After teammate Lance Stroll suffered a puncture and dropped back, Alonso thought he had to defend the final point for his team. "I got confused because when Lance was in front of me after the pitstops, they said: okay, we secured 10th. We've been doing all this for that last point," said Alonso.

"Then Lance had the puncture and I said: Oh, now I have all the responsibility on my shoulders with very old tyres to bring this point back home. I was driving for 50 laps thinking that I was 10th. And then when I crossed the line and they told me P11, I said: Oh, so all that stress for nothing.' But anyway, it kept me alive," he added.

For Alonso, the red flag threw a spanner in the works. Like Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, Aston Martin had gambled wrong with strategy by starting on the hard tyre. That meant that Alonso, like Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, among others, had to continue on mediums for a long time while other drivers were able to take advantage of the red flag to make their only tyre change to the hards.

An extra pit stop was needed, but Alonso's team decided to take a chance. "We started with a hard tyre just to go very end and have an alternative strategy. There is a red flag, so we have to fit the medium and do 78 laps with the medium, which is a kamikaze strategy, but it was the only way to try to score some points." Said the two-time world champion.