Pressiteade
Therace got underway in hot, sunny conditions with Fernando getting a flying startto pass Esteban and Antonio Giovinazzi around the top of the banking throughTurn 3. The Alpine pair then held station until their sole pit stop, taken onconsecutive laps, swapping the Soft Pirelli compound for the Medium.
Fernandoand Esteban subsequently managed their tyres and pace to stay comfortablywithin the top ten. Esteban lost one position to a charging Sergio Perez, whohad started down the field, and finished in ninth, his fourth consecutivepoints-scoring finish. Fernando closed the gap to the Ferrari of Sainz to awafer-thin margin before sealing the deal with a bold pass in the closingstages of the race.
AlpineF1 Team remains in fifth position in the Constructors’ Championship and nowheads to Monza aiming to extend its points run even further.
EstebanOcon, started P8, finished P9:
“Itwas an eventful race at the wheel, and I’m pleased to score points today. Thestart was pretty busy, but I enjoyed the battles out there. On our side, weprobably had the pace to be a position or two higher, but we weren’t so luckywith some situations like blue flags at crucial times. As a team, though, we’veshown good pace all weekend and we can be pleased with that. It’s importantpoints for the Constructors’ Championship and we move onto Monza aiming for arepeat of the same. We were competitive there last year, and the target is tocontinue the points run.”
FernandoAlonso, started P9, finished P6:
“Itwas a good weekend for us. We take some good points with sixth position and Ithought we were generally competitive all weekend. Our start was good, but itwas very close into turn one and two and I had to run wide to avoid hitting thecars around me. We then settled into a good rhythm and executed a solid race.Overtaking Carlos [Sainz] at the end felt fantastic, as early in the race Ididn’t think we could catch the Ferraris. It’ll be interesting to see if we cancarry our form into Monza. Spa in the dry was the first time we ran with a verylow downforce, so let’s see if we can have another good weekend there.”
MarcinBudkowski, Executive Director: “In the end it was a pretty exciting race at a circuitwhere we were expecting it to be difficult to overtake. Both drivers had decentstarts, although had a bit of a coming together on the first lap. Fortunately,nothing came out of it and we managed to get past Giovinazzi quickly and putourselves in a position to manage our tyres to execute a one stop, which we didwell. The second part of the race was quite a lot of action and fighting.Esteban lost a position to Checo [Perez] who was on Soft tyres and in a quickercar. Fernando had a beautiful fight with Carlos [Sainz] to get sixth. It’s goodpoints in the championship for the team however a strong performance fromPierre [Gasly] and Alpha Tauri means they knock two points off us for fifthposition in the Constructors’ Championship. The fight will continue in Monza.Congratulations to Max for his win at home in front of an incredible crowd –it’s been an exceptional atmosphere all weekend, one we haven’t seen for a verylong time.”
