What started out as a strong afternoon turned into a frustrating day for McLaren Honda driver Fernando Alonso at the Belgian Grand Prix.
The Spaniard made an excellent start – going from P10 to P7 on lap one.
However, despite initial optimism, the pecking order was quickly established, and he was unable to capitalise on this early promise. He did however, pull out as brilliant move on the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg, only to have the German reclaim the position as well as others as the notorious power-hungry nature of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit took its toll, leaving Fernando vulnerable to attack on the straights.
After some rather heated comments over team radio, on lap 26, Fernando reported a problem with the engine, and the team opted to retire his car as a precaution.
“In general, it's been a good weekend. We played a good team game in qualifying, we had a great start – taking the outside lane was the right decision – and we were seventh after the first lap. It was fun for the first three or four laps! Then we tried to defend our position, but in the middle of the straights some cars passed us without even activating the DRS,” he explained.
“For sure, is not easy to race like this, as you cannot have any good wheel-to-wheel battles. It was a difficult afternoon and we were not competitive in race trim. The car was too slow on the straights and it was impossible to have any battles out there, so points were also impossible today.”
“Eventually, we had to stop due to an engine issue. The situation is what it is and we need to improve it as soon as we can. I know the team is working day and night improving the car, and we hope we can see the results soon.”
