"What a champion he is" - Lewis Hamilton receives praise from Fernando Alonso after 2023 F1 Australian GP

Fernando Alonso had words of praise for Lewis Hamilton after battling him in the 2023 F1 Australian GP on Sunday (April 2). After conceding the lead to Max Verstappen, Hamilton was in a battle with Alonso throughout the race as the two kept trading the fastest lap times.

Alonso was never able to make it to within the DRS range of the Mercedes and with the late race red flags, it never came to it. However, talking about the battle after the race, the Spaniard praised Hamilton for not making a single mistake.

He told the media after the race:

"It was certainly a chaotic race, the emotions kept changing, like a rollercoaster, but in the end [Stroll's] third and fourth places are a great result for the team, lots of points."

He added:

“It wasn't an easy race, keeping up with Mercedes was difficult, Ferrari and Alpine were also trying to put pressure from behind. So, I tried to force Lewis to make a mistake, but he rode fantastic, what a champion he is. I only remember a lockup on turn 13 in 58 laps, it wasn't possible to do more."

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Fernando Alonso happy with the overall team result in Australia

Fernando Alonso was extremely happy with his team's results in Australia. He finished on the podium and teammate Lance Stroll finished P4. The result meant that Aston Martin have now leapfrogged Mercedes to second in the constructors' championship.

Speaking about Aston Martin's overall result in Melbourne, Alonso said:

“The first red flag helped us because George and Carlos arrived. So we took those positions for free. And the second red flag probably didn't help us, given the crash. But we were lucky again and had another opportunity to see the checkered flag in P3. And as I said, third and fourth popositionsor the team. it's an extraordinary Sunday,”

While Alonso continues to be third in the drivers' championship, an interesting battle is developing between him, Sergio Perez (P2) and Lewis Hamilton (P4).