He put on his halo and went to the stewards. Brundle thinks that Alonso acted deliberately and not for the first time – F1sport.cz

Martin Brundle found a similar incident to the one from the last round of the Australian Grand Prix…

Brundle believes Alonso’s battle with Russell was similar to his battle with Coulthard at the Nürburgring in 2003, when Alonso suddenly slowed on the approach to the final chicane and forced Coulthard into an evasive maneuver that sent him into the ditch (see video below).

Alonso was given a 20-second penalty for “potentially dangerous driving” in Melbourne and lost two positions.

“Alonso claimed on the radio that he had some sort of gas problem and was therefore slower than usual at turn six,” Brundle wrote in his column for Sky.

“Russell pushed the saw a lot to be within range of the double dose of DRS assistance on the next two straights, and he never slows down into the corner in case the rider in front of you unexpectedly slows down. If you do that, you’re not a racing driver.’

“Alonso put on his halo and went to the stewards where he explained how he was going to approach turn six differently to get a better exit speed, which included slowing down 100 meters early, braking and even downshifting.”

“This caught Russell by surprise. We saw the exact same scenario with Alonso back in 2003 at the Nürburgring against David Coulthard. Except this time he’s done massive, costly damage to a team that might be on his wish list.”

“Fernando defends himself and waxes poetic about the epic and clean battles he’s had over the decades, saying that changing the race track or sacrificing approach speed for a better exit is part of the art of motorsport and that it was actually the nature of the gravel zone that caused Russell’s accident. “

“We also heard from him that a rider can’t be responsible for making every bike identical while managing so many other variables.”

“Personally, I have no doubt that Alonso intended to throw off a red-hot Russell heading into the overtaking zone, but I doubt he intended to inflict such a brutal consequence on the Mercedes driver.”