Aston Martin Claws Back Points After Tough Qualify

Despite a rough start, Aston Martin salvaged crucial points in Miami, showcasing resilience.

Fernando Alonso managed to secure two points for ninth place in Miami, despite starting from 15th after a failed qualifying session. The Aston Martin F1 driver climbed through the field during the race, aided by good timing for his pit stop, and engaged in a battle with Esteban Ocon to secure ninth place.

“After a tough day yesterday, it’s good to leave this weekend with some points for the team,” the Spanish driver remarked. “We got a bit lucky with the timing of the virtual safety car, then the full safety car, which bunched up the field.”

“We took the opportunity to switch to medium tires. It slightly altered our strategy and allowed us to have some good battles. I enjoyed the race, and it seems we performed a bit better in the race than in qualifying.”

“We still have work to do to improve our performance in the upcoming races. I’m happy for Lando [Norris]. It’s always special to win your first race.”

Lance Stroll started 11th but finished 17th after a challenging race, during which he again lacked pace and suffered some misfortune with the safety car and a penalty: “It wasn’t a great race today. We pitted early, and a few laps later, the safety car was called.”

“This allowed cars that had stayed out to benefit greatly. It really compromised our strategy. From there, I managed to overtake a few cars and crossed the finish line in 13th place.”

“However, I was penalized for my pass on [Alex] Albon. We’ll review the charts later, but it was a strange penalty. We’re going to work hard over the next two weeks to find more pace in the car for Imola.”

Mike Krack, the team principal, was pleased with the two points scored by Alonso but acknowledged that the poor qualifying was to blame for the disappointing result: “Two hard-earned points in a race dominated by track position and traffic.”

“Our starting positions hurt us today. Fernando’s race was straightforward, and the timing of the virtual safety car proved beneficial as he was suffering from flatspots on his hard tires. He ultimately made it to ninth place.”

“With Lance, we might have stopped a bit too early initially, trying to counter Tsunoda, and we never really recovered the track position we had lost. We will learn from this before the start of the European season.”