Alonso held on to sixth place tooth and nail, Russell chasing him. They kept an almost constant gap before the Briton got close to Alonso’s car on the approach to turn six, lost front axle pressure and his car shot up. Then, with no hope of changing anything, he had to wait to see how it would turn out. The car hit the guardrails, both left wheels broke, and he rolled onto his side.
And it was very lucky that no one immediately went after him, because it could have been a tragedy. But the repeated shots immediately revealed that Alonso unexpectedly slowed down in the corner (according to the data, by 37 km/h compared to the previous pass), as if he wanted to “brake” the approaching opponent. That is why the commissioners immediately began to deal with the whole incident.
Even before the drivers left for the hearing, Russell said that Alonso surprised him with his behavior. “I followed him for many laps, losing half a second to him. He suddenly slowed down dramatically and then hit the gas again. I didn’t expect it and it surprised me. I don’t know if he had a problem,” Russell described, without accusing the most experienced driver in the championship of intent. “I won’t accuse him of anything until we find out more.”
Alonso defended himself: “I concentrated on what was happening in front of me, not behind me. For the last 15 laps I have had some problems with the battery. At the end of the race, I was already struggling a little bit.” In addition, he complained to his engineer about problems with the gas pedal.
They spent more than an hour at the commissioners, according to reports from Australia, with 15 to 30 minutes being the norm. After the interrogation, the “judges” decided that Alonso was guilty because he “behaved in a non-standard way and thus endangered other participants”. He was penalized 20 seconds, losing sixth place and dropping to eighth.
“The telemetry shows that Alonso slowed slightly 100 meters earlier than ever before. He also braked where he normally wouldn’t, and downshifted where he never downshifted. Immediately before the turn, he again engaged a higher gear and accelerated, only to then slow down again,” the stewards explained their decision.
Alonso is said to have explained to them that he had planned to slow down a bit earlier, but he couldn’t do it, so he had to speed up again. At the same time, the commissioners said that they did not take into account the consequences of Russell’s accident, nor were they interested in the intention of Alonso’s actions. “In the stewards’ view, his driving was at least potentially dangerous given the high-speed nature of the section.”
“I wanted to maximize my exit speed to defend myself. I didn’t feel it was dangerous. I’m disappointed to have been penalized for racing in a tough but fair way,” responded Alonso.
Was he punished correctly?
Tags: Russell scared accident shouted red flags Alonso received penalty carom
