Fuming Sebastian Alonso demands "harsh" penalties after Sebastian Vettel blocking

Alonso, Alpine, Austria — Photo: © LAT Images

Austrian Grand Prix

Fuming Alonso demands "harsh" penalties after Vettel blocking

Alonso will start 14th after the Q2 incident

Ewan Gale

Saturday 3 July 2021 17:15

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A fuming Fernando Alonso has demanded F1 penalties for impeding rivals in qualifying must be "harsh" after Sebastian Vettel stopped him from reaching Q3 at the Austrian Grand Prix.

The Alpine driver was on a lap that would have been good enough to reach the top 10 before finding a dawdling Aston Martin on the racing line at the final corner.

That ruined his chances as he eventually finished 14th, with the incident being referred to the race stewards.

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Ahead of FP3, the race director's briefing notes were updated to highlight that drivers would be forbidden to slow between turns nine and 10 to find a gap for their flying lap.

Asked by Sky Sports F1 if the drivers had discussed the topic in their weekly briefing, Alonso said: "A little bit but it is very confusing.

"Part of the talk, the rules that are in place are common sense - there have to be harsh penalties because it is not right what happened today.

"It was very, very frustrating to lose a lot of points tomorrow and now we can have a race we can forget. Starting 14th, it is over. Another weekend with a bit of a strange situation for us."

Alpine could have been fifth or sixth

Alonso has found form after a slow start to his return to F1 this season, with his qualifying form being the biggest issue to solve.

With his confidence on the difficult-to-master Pirelli tyres building, Alonso's disgruntlement was added to by his belief Alpine had "lost our opportunity to be P5 or P6 on the grid and [have] a different race".

He added: "Now, I guess we will not score points tomorrow so whatever penalty we give to the others is never enough.

"It is the way it is. It was very badly managed by the people in front and I am disappointed because we had the potential today. It was our best car, probably, of the season and we didn't maximise it."