Alonso and Stroll made contact at high-speed whereas going alongside the again straight throughout Sunday’s race on the Circuit of The Americas after the Aston Martin driver made a late defensive transfer to the left.
The ensuing contact brought on Alonso’s automobile to level skywards earlier than coming again down onto the monitor, carrying harm that left him slowly returning to the pits. Alonso was capable of proceed, whereas Stroll was eradicated from the race due to the contact.
Alonso mentioned over the radio after the crash that it was a “very late transfer”, however after go to seeing the stewards – who handed Stroll a three-place grid penalty for the next race in Mexico – he put it down as a racing incident.
“Truthfully, while you see the factor on the TV, I feel it’s a racing incident to be trustworthy,” mentioned Alonso, who was given a post-race 30-second penalty which dropped him from seventh to 15th after a Haas protest which Alpine is interesting.
“We transfer mainly on the identical time to the left, and that was the set off of all the things. So I feel it was a really unlucky second for everybody.”
The 2 drivers will race collectively at Aston Martin subsequent season after Alonso signed a multi-year cope with the crew on the finish of August.
Alonso mentioned that he and Stroll had been “OK now within the stewards’ room” when discussing the incident, and that it was “extra between our sporting administrators than between us.”
“I feel we noticed the incident with the identical eyes,” he added. “Our sporting administrators, they see it with utterly totally different eyes!”
Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522, within the pits after a crash on monitor
Picture by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Requested if he thought Stroll had moved a bit late to defend the place, Alonso replied: “Positive, however if you end up at 300 [km/h], these actions, you realize, one-tenth of a second, you progress 200 metres.
“If it’s in sluggish movement and you progress it body by body, he’ll transfer a bit of bit later than me. When you go regular velocity, you see each automobiles roughly on the identical time.
“That’s why after trying on TV, I feel there’s nothing you are able to do in another way.”
Alonso admitted the crash was “not good” to expertise, revealing that he feared his automobile was heading in direction of the fence on the left-hand facet of the monitor.
“I assumed that I used to be rather more on the left, and clearly when you catch the lateral fence, the metallic one, then you definately spin within the air 360 [degrees],” mentioned Alonso.
“You see this type of accident so much in IndyCar, and they’re fairly harmful. I assumed I used to be ended up on that fence. Then when the automobile landed on the monitor, I assumed OK, that is all secure.”
Alonso thought that his automobile was “for positive going to be damaged”, however not solely might he proceed within the race after getting a brand new nostril and entrance wing, however he managed to cost as much as seventh – earlier than the protest from Haas resulted his penalty.
“I used to be shocked after they modified the tyres and the entrance wing and despatched me out,” he mentioned.
“I mentioned OK, you realize, it’s only a check, however they are going to name me in on the following lap or no matter, however apparently no, the automobile was OK, after they checked it visually, all the things was high quality, so we stored going.
“The second [bit of] unhealthy information was that we go to the tip with that set of [hard] tyres, and it was 32 laps to the tip, which I assumed we are going to by no means make it.
“It was name from the crew and technique on the finish. Ending P7 [before the penalty] on the finish with a automobile that was damaged and we had been final, it’s fairly a factor.”
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