Alonso proud of F1 points haul at Alpine's “worst” circuit

Fernando Alonso thinks Alpine overperformed with its double-points haul at Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso (ESP) Alpine F1 Team with Edoardo Bendinelli (ITA) Alpine F1 Team Personal Trainer on the grid.
Fernando Alonso (ESP) Alpine F1 Team with Edoardo Bendinelli (ITA) Alpine…
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Alpine saw its cars finish eighth and 10th at Monza, having qualified outside of the top 10 on pure performance in Friday’s qualifying session. 

Reflecting on the Italian Grand Prix, Alonso said he was “proud” of his team for making the most of an uncompetitive weekend.

“I think it was a good Sunday for us,” Alonso said. “Scoring points with both cars is a difficult target every weekend to position both cars on the top 10 on Sundays. And it was even more here, because we seem a little bit less competitive from the first practice, qualifying P13, P14. 

“And now on Sunday being in the top 10 it means that we did something good to achieve this result. It was a good race, executed well, the pit stops, the starts, no mistakes on the sprint race, no mistakes today. 

“So you know, there are many factors and you have to make all of them quite perfect if you want to score points, because we don't have any margin. So I'm quite satisfied and proud of the team this weekend.”

Despite Alpine’s level of competitiveness varying somewhat, Alonso has scored points in eight of the last nine races. 

Looking ahead at the upcoming races in Russia, Turkey and the United States, Alonso is unsure where Alpine will stand relative to AlphaTauri and Aston Martin - its main competitors for fifth in the constructors’ championship.

“I think there's gonna be ups and downs for everybody,” Alonso added. “We saw in this triple header that we are up and down in the level of competitiveness and on the grid. In Spa, we were okay on the dry. 

“We were not okay with the wet. Zandvoort we were okay all weekend. Here we are not. So I think it's track dependence. So I don't know exactly in Russia, Turkey and Austin, how it's going to be. 

“I think it will be better. I will say that Monza was already in the calendar as one of the worst [for Alpine], we knew that. So, yeah, let's see what we can do.”

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