Fernando Alonso finished the race in P6, but was later penalized for “dangerous driving” and subsequently demoted to P8 after a 20-second penalty.
Alonso was trying to keep George Russell at bay in the dying stages of the race. The Mercedes driver was closing in on him quickly, and the Spaniard tried a different approach at turn 6 to “maximize” his speed for the long straight before turn 9.
In doing so, he caught Russell off guard, and the latter lost control of his car and crashed. After hearing both drivers after the race, the FIA decided to penalize Alonso, something which he thinks isn’t right.
“George caught me quickly, I knew that he was coming. Then he was in DRS range for five or six laps, so I was just doing qualifying laps to stay ahead.
“I wanted to maximize my exit speed from Turn 6 to defend against him. That’s what any racing driver would do, and I didn’t feel it was dangerous.
“It’s disappointing to get a penalty from the stewards for what was hard but fair racing. Still, I’m glad that George is okay. It was not nice to see his car in the middle of the track.”
Alonso continued by underlining that, of course, he didn’t want to cause harm to anyone, especially at those speeds. He added that he was surprised by the penalty because he was simply racing very hard to keep the position.
“A bit surprised by a penalty at the end of the race regarding how we should approach the corners or how we should drive the race cars.
“At no point do we want to do anything wrong at these speeds. I believe that without gravel on that corner, on any other corner in the world, we will never be even investigated.
“In F1, with over 20 years of experience, with epic duels like Imola 2005/2006/ Brazil 2023, changing racing lines, sacrificing entry speed to have good exits from corners is part of the art of motorsport.
“We never drive at 100% every race lap and every corner, we save fuel, tires, and brakes, so being responsible for not making every lap the same is a bit surprising.”
Alonso was also reporting issues with the throttle pedal, but it is unclear if that played a role in his way of approaching turn 6 before Russell’s crash.