A good day today - Alonso
The Spanish Renault F1 driver, Fernando Alonso, finished this afternoon’s San Marino race second, but was pleased with his result in the context of his world championship challenge. Here follows the interview with Fernando Alonso
"A bit of both I think! After starting fifth, it’s a great result to finish second. But we came very, very close to winning…"
What was the key moment?"The end of the second stint. Michael seemed to be having big problems and he was very slow. I caught him up but couldn’t get past, even though my car was at least two seconds faster. So we decided to stop earlier than planned to pass him in the pits. But it didn’t work and when Michael changed tyres, his pace improved again. I was still a bit faster, but Imola is the kind of track where it’s impossible to overtake… And the Ferrari was amazingly fast in a straight line. I couldn’t do anything about it."
Did you try and pass at the end?"A few laps from the end, I was right on the limit, took all the revs in the engine and tried to put more pressure on Michael, but it didn’t work. I had a bit of a scare when I had some understeer, and then I just drove to finish. At another track, I could have got past him."
Do you think you should have stayed out longer before stopping?"Who knows? We will analyse what we should have done after the race to find the best answer. But at the time, you have to make a decisions and I think we made the right one. You can always question it with hindsight – but that’s too late…"
What did you learn from the race?"Imola has never been our best circuit and our car was the quickest out there. What’s more, both McLarens finished behind me which is good for the championship. Two wins and two second places in four races is a great result."
Who is now your main championship rival?"I think we need to wait a few races to see what happens. Michael is a threat, for sure, but he’s not the only one. The two McLarens will be as well, and Giancarlo. The future will tell us who is the main rival."
