“I think I went off the track and it’s my fault, but 100 meters before that corner I was half a second behind Fernando and then he was closing in on me extremely fast and I was already right behind him,” explains Russell. “I don’t know if he had any problems. I can’t say anything more, but I’m disappointed with the way the race ended.”
Asked if Alonso had deliberately braked too fast, Russell said: “It’s clear that he braked 100 meters before the corner, then hit the gas again and went through the corner normally. I’ve seen that data before. I wasn’t prepared for it – what happened, surprised me.”
Big impact for George Russell 😮
Good to see the Mercedes man walk away unscathed from this crash 👍#F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/Jsq6RZ1UBS
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 24, 2024
Meanwhile, Alonso explains that there have been problems with the battery for some time.
“I focus on what’s happening in front of me and not behind me,” says the Aston Martin driver. “The last 15 laps I had problems with the battery. I couldn’t concentrate on the cars behind me. I saw his crashed car and I was worried, but he seems to be fine. The fact that he is closing and is within DRS distance, I saw already in the last five, six laps . Yes, he was close. I tried to drive laps like in qualifying and set as high a pace as possible.”
Although initially struggling at the bottom of the top ten, Alonso managed to move up to fifth place after the pit stop. Having initially driven on solid tires, the Spaniard entered the pits the last of the leading athletes, had already become the leader and used to change tires when Lewis Hamilton retired.
“In terms of speed, the race was not easy, the whole weekend was not easy,” he says. “Today we were lucky with the strategy and the retirement of Luis, followed by the virtual safety car. But we cannot hide that there were problems with the speed all this weekend.”
Having finished the F1 championship in fourth place last year, Alonso is currently eighth in the overall standings after three rounds. Russell is ranked seventh after this incident.
Resources used:
Motorsport.com: F1 News, MotoGP, NASCAR,…
2024-03-25 07:16:22
#clear #Alonso #braked #early #corner #Motor #sports #Sportacentrs.com
