My mistake, says Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso after car goes into gravel
Jul 30, 2023
Spa [Belgium], July 30 : Aston Martin Driver Fernando Alonso lost control of his car and went into the gravel during the sprint race on Saturday at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
After the race, he said that it was his mistake.
Ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, the racers had a rather wet outing in Saturday's sprint race due to continuous rainfall.
Fernando Alonso capped off a challenging Saturday at Spa-Francorchamps for Aston Martin with a crash in the Sprint that saw him ruled out of the 100km encounter.
The Spaniard shouldered the blame on what was his 42nd birthday.
Once the Sprint got underway on Saturday afternoon, Alonso was just a few corners further down the track at Pouhon when he dipped a wheel onto the kerbs and spun into the gravel on Lap 3 of 11.
Fernando Alonso was quoted as saying by Formula 1's official website, “My mistake, I touched the kerb, or the white line or whatever, and I lost the car. I was very close to Nico, so I lost a little bit of rhythm in that corner."
He added, “We were out of the points anyway – I think today, impossible to be in the top eight, so if one time you have to have a DNF, may be better today than any other day.”
Asked how tricky the conditions were, Alonso said, “It was tricky obviously. We’ve been, the whole weekend, finding the grip and guessing what the grip is in each of the corners."
The two-time world champion added, “Every lap, the track improvement is massive. It was tricky also with all the cars visibility was obviously different to qualifying, so it was tricky.”
With teammate Stroll winding up P11 in the Sprint, Alonso’s crash capped off a point-less Saturday for the Aston Martin squad.
