Japanese GP with two faces for Aston Martin: Fernando Alonso confirmed his excellent qualifying, finishing sixth after starting from fifth position, while Lance Stroll did not score any points, paying a high price for his elimination in Q1 on Saturday.
ALONSO: “ONE OF THE BEST WEEKENDS IN A WHILE”
The team’s driving force was, once again, Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard was concerned about losing several positions after qualifying. However, he kept behind both Oscar Piastri and the Mercedes without too many worries, only losing out to Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. The two-time world champion is very happy with the result obtained after Aston Martin’s first 2024 upgrade package:
“It was a fantastic weekend for me, with fifth place in qualifying yesterday and sixth place in the race. It was one of my best for a while. I think this weekend we slightly outperformed our real position, but this season we are doing our races very well, and we are getting good points for the team.”
The excellent work done by the team was also fundamental for the result, both in the pit stops and in the strategic choices, despite the fact that the red flag displayed immediately after the start due to the accident between Alex Albon and Daniel Ricciardo had somewhat ruined the result. initial idea to start on the Soft tyre:
“Our plan for today worked well, and special thanks go to the pit stops, which were really impressive, so credit to the whole team for that. We still have to analyze our update package, we will take a look at all our data before returning to Shanghai .”
At the end of the race, Alonso used all his experience to create a train of cars, giving DRS to Piastri to allow the Australian to defend himself from the more insidious George Russell. It was a perfectly successful plan, without controversial episodes like the one that cost him a controversial penalty in the previous Australian GP.
STROLL: “DISAPPOINTING NOT TO FINISH IN THE POINTS”
However, there was nothing to be done for Lance Stroll, whose race had already been seriously compromised by sixteenth place in qualifying. Aston Martin tried to lift the Canadian up with an aggressive strategy that led him to fit Soft tyres towards the end of the race to try to make a comeback up to the points zone:
“It was a difficult race today. Starting from sixteenth position meant we had a compromised strategy and struggled to find clean air. We also lacked the straight-line speed we needed.
“I made some nice overtakes at Turn 6, though, so the race was fun. We were hoping to catch Tsunoda for tenth place, but the soft tyres had no grip towards the end, so it was disappointing not to finish in the points .”
KRACK: “THE UPDATES SEEM TO BE A POSITIVE STEP”
The eight points scored by Alonso allow Aston Martin to remain glued to Mercedes in the Constructors’ standings, just one point behind. Team principal Mike Krack gave a final review of the Suzuka weekend:
“Sixth position was the best we had today, it’s a solid result. The updates we brought appear to be a positive step, and we were able to finish ahead of our closest rival, Mercedes, and return home with eight points.
“Fernando drove really well, and the team made flawless and consistent pit stops. Lance was battling with Tsunoda, who started six places ahead of him on the grid after qualifying. He fought well and made some impressive overtaking in the Snake .”
