Fernando Alonso admits that it was “painful” to miss the points in Monza after stopping twice when his immediate rivals were able to make a one-stop work.
From 11th on the grid the Aston Martin driver passed Nico Hulkenberg at the start, and then got ahead of Alex Albon at the pit stops.
He then dropped back when he made his second stop and went on to finish 11th, right on the tail of Albon and the penalised Kevin Magnussen, both of whom pitted only once.
Nevertheless the Spaniard admitted that the outcome was better than he had anticipated.
“Today is much, much better than expected,” he said when asked by formu1a.uno about his race.
“I think the execution of the race was really good for us. We got lucky with the start, a very good start, we overtook Nico, and then we were 10th, and close to Alex.
“So we kept the pace, surprisingly, with the Williams, so happy with that. And then we undercut him.
“We were running ninth for the majority of the race. And then we opted for two stops, we could not make it on one with our tyre degradation.
“We tried to catch at the end. And eight-tenths from Albon, one-tenth from Magnussen. So P11, only one second away of P9, which is very painful to lose the points, because I think we deserved it in a way, with a well-executed race. But the car is what it is at the moment, and we need to get better.”
Alonso said the two-stop strategy was the only choice for Aston Martin.
“We anticipated that the race was two stops for us,” he said. “We are quite hungry on tyres normally, our car, and we don’t have downforce on corners, so we rely completely on the mechanical grip from the tyres.
“So we stress the tyre normally more than the others. That’s our problem on Sundays. So here, because it was between one and two, we knew that for the Aston it was two.”
Alonso is resigned to the team’s current form.
“Nothing we can do,” he said. “I mean, we are in our team’s hands. And I think Lance and myself, we’re trying to do the best we can every weekend.
“One inspired weekend like this, one from my side – I know it’s going to be completely anonymous, Monza 2024 from Alonso.
“But I think this year we’ve been Lance and myself very close, two or three seconds away at the end of the race. He’s always in front of behind.
“And today was, it was one of those weekends that I was a little bit better, and I was happy with the car, and pushing to the level that maybe was beyond 100%, and that was P11. So yeah, disappointed on that.”
