Fernando Alonso has explained that Aston Martin’s available allocation was the reason behind him running a short stint on Softs in Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix.
Starting third, Alonso capitalised on Sergio Perez being compromised on the inside into the sweeping Turn 1 corner to dance around the outside and seize second.
However, the Spaniard surrendered the position five laps later and then McLaren’s Lando Norris demoted the Aston Martin driver to fourth with a move into Turn 14.
Alonso was the first of the front-running drivers to come into the pits to switch to the Hards, but he was hampered when a Virtual Safety Car turned into a full caution.
Aston Martin placed Alonso onto a new set of Softs before he returned to the pits with 12 laps to go to put on the Mediums, charging from 11th back to seventh place.
“Yeah, yeah, definitely [a] crazy race, a lot of things happened for us in the race,” Alonso reflected.
“As you said, great start, P2 the first couple of laps, then [a] few Safety Cars that probably didn’t help our strategy and make the others save the tyres a little bit and last until the end.
“We had to make another stop yes or yes so yeah, that was not ideal. But at the end nearly crashed but then fastest lap and P7, so all in all I think a good weekend.”
Expanding on the unusual strategic choices Aston Martin adopted, Alonso revealed that the Silverstone-based squad had carried a single set of Hards into the race.
“We only had one Hard tyre and in the middle of the Hard stint the Safety Car came, so let’s say our good race tyre was gone in a way after that Safety Car,” he said.
“So, we didn’t have any more options.
“So let’s see, maybe next time we don’t race the Sprint, we save tyres and we have more race for Sunday; like this, we don’t have even a strange penalty.”
Alonso overtook Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri to recover to seventh place as the sole Aston Martin to bag points.
Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll had been running in 10th place but ran into Daniel Ricciardo’s rear at Turn 14 as the field prepared to return to racing conditions.
The Canadian racer, who was forced to pit to have a new front wing fitted to his AMR24 car, was hit with a 10-second time drop and he trailed home in 15th position.
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