Fernando Alonso insists Alpine Hungarian GP glory was "not a gift"

Ocon and Alonso after the win at the Hungarian Grand Prix — Photo: © LAT Images

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Alonso insists Alpine Hungarian GP glory was "not a gift"

Alpine finished with both teams in the top five

Ewan Gale

Wednesday 4 August 2021 12:56

Fernando Alonso has insisted Alpine's double top-five score at the Hungarian Grand Prix was "not a gift" because of the hard work needed to achieve the result.

Alonso finished fifth but was promoted to fourth after Sebastian Vettel's disqualification for a fuel irregularity, whilst team-mate Esteban Ocon stormed to his maiden grand prix victory.

The opportunity was created when Valtteri Bottas and Lance Stroll triggered separate turn one incidents.

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Asked if there had been any lasting effects from being in the middle of the carnage, Alonso replied: "No, no damage, the car was fine. I was just lucky.

"Unlucky in a way because I think today I had the pace to win the race which is what it seems when you see the race trace but on the other hand, I was lucky not to finish my race in turn one like some of the people did.

"We take this top five, it is my best result of the year. It was not a gift because we had to fight every single lap for every single position and I am proud of my race and driver of the day probably shows that."

Alonso seeking slice of fortune to reach podium

Whilst Alonso was fortunate to escape the incident, the road was clear for Ocon to jump into second before inheriting the lead from a Mercedes strategy blunder.

40-year-old Alonso conceded he hoped for more chaos at future races in order to reach the podium himself.

"Hopefully, in one race, I am a little bit on the lucky part and I can get some podiums," he said.

"Last year, we had three podiums in the team, this year we have one podium. All of these need to come with some special races, we know that because by pure pace we cannot achieve it.

"Hopefully, in the remaining races some of these special circumstances come and one time I am on it and I can enjoy as well."