A bit of a crazy race - Alonso
The Spanish 2005 World Champion didn’t have a straightforward race to victory, but he managed it in spite of no fewer than four safety car periods. Team mate Giancarlo Fisichella finished 5th. Alonso claimed the third victory for Renault out of 3!
"I needed to get a good start, and Fisico’s problem made it easier to get close to Jenson in the first corner. I braked as late as I could and we nearly touched, but we had a fight through the first corners. It was tough. He stayed ahead, but it got the jump on him when the race re-started after the first safety car."
How did you manage it?"I think our car was warming up its tyres better than his, and it meant I could close on him in the last corner, get better speed on the straight and overtake him. We decided to use the tyres aggressively."
And the rest of the race?"It was a little bit crazy! All I know is that I had a twenty second lead, then it kept going to nothing when the safety car came out. Kimi was closing in the final laps, but I was controlling my performance, and there was no worry – I was even running the engine turned down. My engineer was panicking a bit as the McLaren closed in, but I was reassuring him over the radio… In fact, it wasn’t a very difficult race. I got the lead, our strategy worked well and I built a gap that meant I could manage the safety car periods quite comfortably."
This seems like it has been an ideal start to the season…"Yes. It has been a fantastic start to the year: 28 points out of 30 possible. That’s a fantastic result, and I hope I can maintain this level of competitiveness."
