Fernando Alonso believes Aston Martin failed to score points despite their strongest showing this year because of his first-lap collision with Alexander Albon.
The pair made contact when Albon tried to pass Alonso on the inside of turn 11. The clash damaged Alonso’s car and he finished the race 16th, four places lower than he started.“Albon forgot that corner 11 was there and he had to turn left,” said Alonso after the race. “But we need to get better and start a little bit higher up because I think the bottom third of the grid, the quality of the drivers is very low at the moment.”
The two-times world champion believes he could have finished as high as ninth place without the damage he picked up on the first lap.
“I think it was the best race of the year by far for us in terms of competitiveness,” he said. “The car was very strong in the race good tyre management.
“We got a lot of damage on lap one with Albon incident, despite that the car was still competitive. So I think we today we could have had maybe a P9, P10 on merit.
“So the best and the strongest race of the year, but ruined in the first lap with the turn 11 incident.”
This article will be updated
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