Aston Martin bounced back from their difficult time in Mexico City with a strong showing in Brazil, where Fernando Alonso finished 12th at Interlagos and just missed out on a rare chance to score points. The Spaniard showed all his experience in the wet on Saturday to qualify inside the top 10 for the first time all season, and managed to remain up the order in the first stint of the race in what he called a phenomenal machine.
Even after he started to drop backwards, Alonso was able to fight with the cars around him, which included some of the more typical front runners. The Aston Martin man even overtook Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari on merit at one point during the grand prix.
While his drive did not yield any points, it still left Alonso in a buoyant mood post-race. "I think it was the best race for the car feeling today," he said, adding that the car was phenomenal in the corners while they were battling with the Ferraris. He noted that even during the last five laps on the inters, they were in the mix with the two Mercedes despite being one lap down. Taking into account how much they lose on the straights, Alonso suggested that probably on that day they could have been maybe one second faster than them per lap.
While that comment seemed tongue in cheek, what was clear was how much quicker the AMR26 was in Brazil than it has been for much of the season. His drive was also a good response to Mexico City, where the team had to retire both cars early on with power unit problems. Alonso’s Sao Paulo performance saw him beat both Alpines, both Williams cars and the two Haas drivers to the flag on merit.
Lance Stroll, however, did not make the end of the race, retiring again with an ERS issue for his eighth DNF in the last 10 Grands Prix. But Chief Trackside Officer Mike Krack was upbeat in the wake of the weekend, describing mixed fortunes with a strong drive from Fernando to finish P12 and Lance unfortunately retiring with a battery issue. Krack added that they must be satisfied with the outcome of the weekend as they were ahead of competitors with faster cars in Qualifying and the race.
Aston Martin remain 10th in the standings, five points adrift of Williams. Alonso last scored in Malaysia, but Aston Martin are seemingly heading in the right direction on pace, even if reliability remains an Achilles' heel.
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