Fernando Alonso has expressed surprise over how long it took Lewis Hamilton to overtake him for fourth place during the Hungarian Grand Prix.
After pitting for fresh Medium tyres on lap 47, Hamilton used the new rubber to close up to the back of Alonso, doing so by lap 54.
Following several wheel-to-wheel battles, Hamilton passed his former team-mate on lap 65, before moving ahead Carlos Sainz two laps later.
Alonso, whose tyres were 8 laps older than Hamilton’s, says it shouldn’t have taken the seven-time world champion as long as it did to overtake him.
“I tried to give enough space, but not too much space, because if not he would pass,” Alonso told Sky F1.
“But honestly, I think Lewis was making small mistakes in the last two corners – that’s my honest opinion.
“He had so much pace that you cannot take eight laps to pass with that pace advantage.
“And in fact, after changing a few lines, he got past Carlos immediately one lap later, so it was not difficult to pass in my opinion, but he took four or five laps to figure it out. That’s my opinion, but I don’t know.”
After passing Alonso and Sainz, Hamilton closed down the top two of Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel, however the time spent behind Alonso cost him, as he only caught the front-running duo on the final lap.
Alonso’s team-mate Ocon sealed his first grand prix victory, which Alonso says will deliver a big confidence boost to Alpine.
“It’s a special day, he will never forget this day,” Alonso said. “I’m so happy for him, I’m so happy for the guys.
“We’ve been up and down in the races, but a re-named team Alpine, looking forward to the future and maybe a bit of success of the past, this boost of motivation is huge.
“They go to the break now after a demanding first half of the season, we go with a smile on our face.”
Good job FA of holding off hamilton
Hamilton has gotten lazy from being out front all of the time or battling average/below average racers like Vettel or Bottas, not best-on-the-grid Alonso. At best, Verstappen, but he is still a long way from reaching the talent of Alonso. Hamilton had not only fresher tires, but a far superior car, and plenty of track space, and still couldn’t get by Alonso for several laps. This is very telling, as was Hamilton having to resort to claiming Alonso was putting him in a dangerous situation. Alonso simply embarrassed him. If he were in an equal Mercedes, I’m pretty sure he would be winning nearly every race of the season in a dominant fashion. Current Hamilton is definitely not of the same ilk as 2007-2008 Hamilton, who quite frankly has only became a worse driver since.
Alonso is a washed up driver beaten in his prime by a rookie Lewis Hamilton when they were teammates. On a difficult track to pass and not wanting to take chances on passing a weaving Alonso , Hamilton took extra time in passing which cost him the win but the objective of regaining the lead for the WDC when he was down by 32 points has been accomplished.
Alonso is now a number 2 driver at Alpine. His glory days are long over so let him have his dig on Hamilton. In the end mission accomplished by the F1 GOAT Lewis which is to take the lead in the WDC.