Fernando Alonso says Sunday’s Dutch Grand Prix was all about tyre management, which the Spaniard and his Alpine team executed well to secure a P6 finish at the end of the day.
Alonso blasted off the grid from P9 with a plan to try and gain a few positions by running on the outside of Zandvoort’s first corner.
But the Alpine driver wasn’t the only one with that idea, with Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi also running wide at Tarzan.
Amid the commotion, Alonso came close to clashing with teammate Esteban Ocon, but the Spaniard gained the upper hand over the Frenchman by taking the high line through Turn 3.
“I planned at the start to be on the outside, but Giovinazzi was thinking the same, so I had that door closed,” explained Alonso. “But at one point I tried to also overtake Esteban, it was very close between us.”
Once he settled into his rhythm, Alonso focused on tyre management, pacing himself and regularly updating his team of his rubber’s degradation.
The strategy that led Ocon to radio in to the Alpine pitwall to say that his teammate was “slow”, when the latter was just wisely saving his tyres.
In the closing stages of the event, Alonso enjoyed a good scrap with his countryman, Carlos Sainz whom he managed to pass on the penultimate lap.
“A well-executed race,” added Alonso. “It was a little bit unknown what the tyre degradation could be, so we weree updating the team basically every five or six laps
“We had to give the strategy according to the feeling we had in the car.
“It was a challenge because even if the car felt okay, you didn’t know in ten laps what the balance would be, because we had no reference, no last year’s race, no practice long enough runs.
“You are always thinking of the worse, being pessimistic and trying to drive conservative, trying to take care of the tyres, but at one point you have to attack. So it was a challenge for everybody.
“Overtaking Carlos was not expected, because the Ferrari, we thought that they were much in front. But P6 was the maximum today.”
Alonso’s performance with Alpine has improved since the start of the summer and the 40-year-old said that he was enjoying his racing although he admitted that he still needed to raise his game on Saturdays.
“Yes, I’m enjoying it,” he said. “On Saturday I’m still missing some performance, there are some two or three laps that I can improve one or two tenths. But on Sunday, I’m basically enjoying it more.
“Let’s see Monza, it’s going to be another good atmosphere I guess with all the tifosi, so looking forward.”
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