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Fernando Alonso claimed that he wasn't the biggest of the Sprint weekend for the Chinese GP last weekend as the sport was racing at the Shanghai International Circuit after five years.
The Aston Martin driver had a rollercoaster weekend at the Shanghai International Circuit as he made two excellent starts that saw him move to P2 in both the Sprint race and the main race.
However, he could not hold onto his position on either occasion due to the lack of pace in the AMR24. The lack of hard tires for the main race was a trickle-down effect of using tires for the Sprint races.
Speaking with F1TV in his post-race interview, Fernando Alonso spoke about the team's decision to put soft tires in the middle of the race and said:
"Yeah, we only had one hard tire, and in the middle of the stint, the safety car came so our good race tire was gone in a way after that safety car. We didn't have any more options so let's see maybe next time we don't race the sprint, we save tires and we have more race for Sunday so we don't have a strange penalty."
Fernando Alonso chimes in on his fast race starts at the Chinese GP
Fernando Alonso stated that his ending up in P2 at the start of the race was more down to their rivals not utilizing the qualifying sessions as the Aston Martin doesn't have the pace in the main races.
Speaking with the media, including Sportskeeda, the two-time world champion said:
"We keep repeating the same things but we see every Sunday that we are the fifth-fastest team. But for whatever reason, they [Aston’s rivals] don't put the laps together on a Saturday, we qualify in front of them and then there is this fight every Sunday. Let’s see if we can improve the car.”
“Yesterday, the same with Lewis [Hamilton], I was P2 when Lando went off and I said 'OK, I may try to lead the race for at least one lap'. Today, I passed Checo and thought, ‘OK, I will do it again’ but I had no choice or opportunity.”
It hasn't been an ideal start to the 2024 season for the Aston Martin F1 team and Fernando Alonso as they haven't managed a podium in the five races and a Sprint despite starting in promising positions after the qualifying sessions.
