Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso has admitted that he “had no chance” of winning 2023 Monaco Grand Prix.
Having been beaten to pole position by Max Verstappen by just 0.084 seconds, Alonso was unable to mount a challenge for race victory as he spent the entire race in second place, behind Verstappen who managed to make his medium tyres last 55 laps before rain showers swept in.
Alonso however had to make two stops after he first pitted at the end of Lap 54 for mediums but the rain worsened on his outlap, which forced him to stop again a lap later for intermediate tyres which prevented him from having any chance of a late charge to fight Verstappen for the win.
Speaking post-race about that two-stopper, Alonso admitted that he didn’t think that his additional pit stop in “difficult” slippy conditions would of “affected the result.”
Explaining his pit stop strategy of hards to medium then intermediates, Alonso commented: “It’s always hard to read the race fully from the cockpit, but on the lap I stopped, the track was completely dry apart from Turns Seven and Eight – so why fit Inters, especially when it felt like a small shower and we had plenty of margin behind us?
“So it was the right decision, and extra safe: but a minute and a half later it was a completely different situation!”
On the possibility of snatching his first win in a decade since the 2013 Spanish GP, Alonso iterated that he had “no chance to win” irrespective of the weather conditions given Verstappen’s pace, but was “happy” with how he “raced aggressively and tried to win it.”
The two-time champion though is pleased with how Aston Martin are “getting closer” to that elusive victory, as he now heads to Spain for his home race on weekend of 2-4 June.
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