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Alpine lashes out firmly at stewards in Miami after Alonso time penalty
- GPblog.com
Fernando Alonso came up short on Sunday after the Miami Grand Prix. The two-time world champion was given a five-second time penalty a few hours after the race ended, which left him outside the points. His team Alpine has lashed out at the course of events in a statement.
Alonso crossed the line in ninth place, but his two World Cup points thus had to be exchanged for a penalty point on his racing license. The Spaniard would have left the track at turn 14 and benefited permanently from that. Alpine itself states that Alonso left the throttle during the GP to nullify the advantage.
Alpine not happy
"This one is certainly difficult to accept since Fernando handed back the time during the lap and we were not able to present the evidence to clarify the particular situation before the penalty was issued," Laurent Rossi is quoted by The Race. Indeed, the stewards did not call Alonso to them to explain the incident. The Alpine team boss is outraged. "“With the opportunity to explain, we’re very confident Fernando would have kept his ninth place.”
Things are not going well for Alonso in 2022. In Saudi Arabia and Imola he had a DNF and only in Bahrain two points were scored by the 40-year-old driver. It makes that he currently holds the sixteenth position in the world championship. Teammate Esteban Ocon already managed to collect 24 points in five Grands Prix.