- Cold Chronicle in Montmeló: the Mercedes snatch the podium from Sainz and Alonso finishes seventh
- Character The prodigious boredom of Max Verstappen and the warnings to overcome the track: "We have all laughed"
A disaster. There will be no more celebrations. The end. The two Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, stood on the podium alongside Max Verstappen. Fernando Alonso, seventh, fought behind Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda and Guanyu Zhou. Big disappointment. A World Cup downhill. It's over. What doesn't! None of that! "It has only been a race, in Canada I crush them," Alonso proclaimed in the mixed zone and cleared, with a couple of phrases, the clouds on his horizon. This Sunday, in Montmeló, he signed the worst result of his season and "nobody wants to have a bad day at home", but that's it, nothing more. Neither the improvement of Mercedes nor the delay of Aston Martin are significant, according to the two-time Formula 1 champion, who promised to return to the podiums, to the path of that victory number 33 in his life.
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Formula 1.
Cold in Montmeló: the Mercedes snatch the podium from Sainz and Alonso finishes seventh
- Writing: JAVIER SÁNCHEZ Montmeló
Cold in Montmeló: the Mercedes snatch the podium from Sainz and Alonso finishes seventh
His analysis might seem optimistic. His analysis really was optimistic. But he had reason to be. Among his reasons to keep his spirits up, the characteristics of the Spanish track -fast corners and high degradation-, the new parts that Aston Martin has promised for the next races and, above all, its poor classification. "I leave happy because with a normal Saturday I would have had a chance. In Miami, even in Monaco, I wasn't ready to get on the podium, but I qualified on the front row of the grid and got it. Here it has been the opposite. If I had started from the front I would have left, I would have worn the tires less and maybe I would have finished third or fourth, I don't know," Alonso said. His career, in fact, was a comeback of merit.
The bet on two sets of soft tires locked him in the peloton and, after his second passage through the pits, with 20 laps to go, he was tenth, behind drivers from Alpine, Alpha Tauri and Alfa Romeo. He overtook them and lifted the public of Montmeló. But he couldn't take it anymore. In sixth place, just ahead of him, he met his teammate, Lance Stroll, and did not try to beat him the position. Carlos Sainz's fifth place was unattainable and the battle with his partner was at risk. "It didn't matter if I was sixth and seventh or seventh and sixth. Between the two of us we have saved the furniture and we have taken points from Ferrari in the constructors' championship, "said Alonso waiting for the next test, on June 18, in Montreal. High head, wide smile: the opposite of his compatriot, Carlos Sainz.
Ferrari's problem
In the mixed zone, his gestures said it all: disappointment for the lost podium. Starting from the front line, Ferrari had brought to Montmeló multiple novelties and, despite this, was surpassed by the Red Bull and the Mercedes. The eleventh position of his teammate, Charles Leclerc, outside the points, was the confirmation of the problems that drag the team. "The car wasn't there for more," Sainz agreed. In Formula 1 there is a widespread belief that new parts, more when it comes to aerodynamic adjustments, require several adaptation races and that is why Ferrari will surely improve before the summer break, but equally something fails.
Carlos Sainz, just before the race. JOSEP LAGOAFP
"In the factory they are giving everything, they are testing everything in the wind tunnel, although it is clear that we lack," analyzed Sainz who, like Alonso, downplayed the importance of the double on the podium of Hamilton and Russell. "I wouldn't take too many conclusions. There are always better circuits than others and in this one they are fast, "he supposed with a point in his favor. Leclerc has been on the podium once this year – in Baku – and the Spaniard has yet to do so, but thanks to his consistency he leads him with 16 points in the World Championship. There are months left for dispatches, negotiations and contracts, but it is always important to be ahead of your partner. Everything else is uncontrollable.
Hamilton's "No"
More when this Sunday not even Mercedes assumed its superiority as definitive and accepted that, in the next races, who knows what will happen. For several races, practically since the season began, Hamilton maintains certain tensions with his own team and neither his second place in Montmeló nor his approach to Alonso in the championship – he is fourth to 12 points of the Spaniard – lowered his speech. "No," he replied sharply when asked if his car was already the second fastest on the grid and could think about competing against Red Bull.
Lewis Hamilton, on the podium in Montmeló.JOSEP LAGOAFP
With Shakira, Rosalía or Neymar as guests in his motorhome, the pilot who gathered the most paparazzi around, did not want to throw the bells on the fly: "I did not expect a double podium here. Maybe at the end of the year we can get closer to Red Bull, but that's not our goal now." His success this Sunday was not, what not!, None of that!, a disaster for Alonso.
- Max Verstappen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lewis Hamilton
- Mercedes GP
- Articles Javier Sánchez
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