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F1 pundits Will Buxton and Alex Brundle were impressed by Fernando Alonso's save during the Chinese GP main race on Sunday (April 21) while chasing Lewis Hamilton.
The Aston Martin driver had a rollercoaster Chinese GP as he found himself in P2 in the opening laps of the race but ultimately finished the main race in P7 due to the lack of race pace in the AMR24 and poor strategy.
The two-time world champion had soft tires in the safety car period while everyone around him had fresh hard tires. This meant that Alonso had to make a late pit stop for fresher rubber.
Fernando Alonso made full use of the fresher tires and quickly made his way back into the top 10 and was chasing Lewis Hamilton for P8 when he almost crashed on the final turn after he dipped a wheel in the gravel.
While analyzing the moment on the post-race show on F1TV, Alex Brundle said:
"I've not seen someone Spaghetti arm a Formula 1 like that for a while."
To which Will Buxton replied:
"Testing the structural integrity of his underpants."
Fernando Alonso analyzes his P7 finish at the Chinese GP
Fernando Alonso stated that it was a 'tricky' race for him for several reasons as he was caught out by the safety car and could not optimize his preferred strategy. As per F1.com, the Aston Martin driver said:
“We didn't quite have the pace today and it was a tricky race with a lot of things happening. Despite this, it was important to score some points and a bonus to get the fastest lap too. We made a good start and moved up to second, and for a moment I thought it would be nice to lead the race for a lap, but we couldn't make that happen.
"A few safety cars changed the strategy a little bit and we didn't have any more hard tires available, so that's why we made a switch to the soft compound. Overall, it was a good race, but we have some work to do to improve our Sunday pace and match what we can do in Qualifying.”
Fernando Alonso might have finished P6 if everything had gone to plan hence his P7 finish wasn't entirely bad as he got important points for the team. The Spaniard is now only two points behind Mercedes' George Russell in the driver's championship with 31 points after five races and a sprint.
