Fernando Alonso makes "two year" Alpine claim after fiery São Paulo weekend

Fernando Alonso, Alpine, Brazil, 2022 — Photo: © LAT Images

São Paulo Grand Prix

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Alonso makes "two year" Alpine claim after fiery São Paulo weekend

Both Alpine drivers clashed across the weekend

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Tuesday 15 November 2022 12:28

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Fernando Alonso has described contact with Esteban Ocon in Sunday's sprint as the pair's 'only mistake' in two years as team-mates.

The Spaniard was left furious during the São Paulo sprint after contact was made with Ocon on two occasions, leaving both drivers plummeting from the top 10.

Alonso, despite his consistent radio communications laying the blame at Ocon's door and reminding his team of issues in Saudi Arabia and Hungary particularly, was handed a five-second penalty which left him starting 16th for the grand prix proper.

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Both drivers fought back to secure vital points in the championship for the team just a day after being provided with a public warning from team principal Otmar Szafnauer.

"It was what it was," reflected Alonso. "We both make mistakes.

"I accept the one on the straight was my fault, I thought the penalty was extremely harsh.

"We had the same accident in Portimão with Kimi and Giovinazzi and nothing happened.

"Ok, I take the penalty and the blame for that. But the races are on Sunday so anything can happen as we saw.

"In two years, we have had one mistake, that was [in the sprint]. There was a lot of blame to us. We take that but I think we try to help Alpine every time we get in the car.

"It has been two years [of] clean [racing]. If people want to make a big thing about that, ok, but we had one contact in two years. We recovered everything."

Alonso had fun after safety car

Alonso eventually finished fifth after implementing an aggressive three-stop strategy.

A late safety car for Lando Norris' stricken McLaren gave Alonso the impetus he needed on fresher tyres to carve his way through the top 10 and eventually challenge the Ferrari duo for a podium position.

"We chose a three-stop strategy so we were out of sync with most of the cars," said the two-time world champion.

"At the end, the last safety car reshuffled the race a bit, I had newer tyres and I could have some fun at the end, overtaking Checo [Perez], fighting with Charles and with the McLarens out of the race, a lot of points for Alpine."