Fernando Alonso worked up from 16th on the grid to just miss out on the points in the final laps of the F1 Las Vegas GP, with Sergio Pérez getting around the Aston Martin with six laps remaining to send Alonso to an 11th place finish.
Only car starting F1 Las Vegas GP on soft tyres
Their race included a gamble at the start, as Alonso was the only driver on the grid on soft tyres, but on track the benefit was minimal, a point he conceded after the race.
“I don’t think that it made really a big difference. We just stopped very early, which we could have done it also with the medium if we started with those. It was not a big benefit on lap one, at the start, and then we committed to stop very, very early.”
Switching to hard tyres on lap 4, Alonso had moved into the points by lap 17, but it only took a couple laps after that for those to wear out as graining hit everyone hard.
Switching to a second set of hards on lap 25, the Aston Martin worked through the field until making it back into the points by passing Esteban Ocon’s Alpine for 10th on lap 37, where he stayed until nearly the end of the F1 Las Vegas GP.
“Already, the laps to the grid, the car felt a little bit better”
The race pace was much improved from qualifying, with Alonso saying that even on the formation lap the car felt improved compared to Saturday.
“The strategy was great, the pace was better, pit stops were very, very fast. I think we did a decent race. If we start a little bit further up in Qatar or Abu Dhabi, the points are possible.”
“Every point is gold” with two races left
And while, in their respective positions of 9th in the drivers’ championship and 5th in constructors, Alonso and Aston Martin are too far back to move up in the standings, they aren’t assured of falling backwards. “I think every point is gold for us at the moment. Even if we are not fighting for many important things, I think it’s good to give something back to the mechanics and to everyone in the team after all the struggles.”
