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Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso has spoken out after struggles keeping the car on track saw him lose out to current world champion Max Verstappen in the Monaco grand prix.
Verstappen started the race from pole position and immediately started pulling away from Alonso who started in second place.
The Dutch driver maintained a comfortable lead for most of the race, with the gap to Alonso standing at 10 seconds before the rain came down.
Aston Martin made the first move, pitting the Spaniard but making the bizarre decision to put him on dry tyres, with other teams opting for intermediates.
“It was difficult and we started on the hard tyres, so gave up the possibility into Turn One,” said Alonso after the race.
“We hoped to play the long game with the strategy but Max drove super well on the medium tyres to extend that first stint. We didn’t have any chance then the rain made things a bit complicated out there.”
The rain made things harder for the drivers, with Alonso finding things really tricky in the wet conditions.
“No full power on the lap, braking was extremely fragile into turn five and 10. It was not easy,”
“I was surprised there were no incidents, safety cars. Everyone did an amazing job to keep the cars on the track.”
With the decision to keep Alonso on dry tyres with rain coming in, another stop was required for the Aston Martin driver, allowing him to finish the race on the intermediate compounds.
Alonso wasn’t the only man struggling in the wet, with Verstappen coming close to crashing on a few occasions.
The main one came as the Dutchman looked to come into the pits at Portier, he lost control of the car and tapped the barrier in a moment that could’ve had big implications on the race.
“Then it started to rain and we had to make the call to go onto the inters,” said Verstappen.
“It was incredibly slippery and when you are that far in the lead you don’t want to push too hard but also you don’t want to lose too much time so it’s quite difficult in that scenario. I clipped the wall a few times and it was super difficult out there. But that’s Monaco.”
Verstappen now has a 39-point lead at the top of the driver’s championship, with teammate Sergio Perez only managing to come 16th after starting in last place.
Feature Image Credit – Eric Alonso
