“Well, we´ll see in Monaco”, those are the words from Fernando Alonso to Max Verstappen after the Miami GP. A two-time world champions who believes that turning the championship around is still possible.
Despite Red Bull utter dominance, Alonso managed to finish in third position to complete the podium with a solid driving performance from the Aston Martin driver. A comfortable race for the Spanish who had no problems keeping the distance with Carlos Sainz at the beginning and with George Russell towards the end of the race. “The car is amazing and it was a little bit of a lonely race today,” said Alonso.
"Great move into Turn 1"
Alonso was not pressured at any point of the weekend, not even by the Ferraris who seemed to have the pace, “We did expect a little bit stronger opposition, but the Ferraris, they were a little bit worse than expected”. The driver was so confident in his abilities that he had time to watch his teammate overtake Yuki Tsunoda through the main big screen. “Which position is Lance? Great move into turn 1.”
This way, Alonso scores his fourth podium in five races but is now looking for something more than a third place, “I think at the beginning of the year a podium was amazing, now after four podiums we obviously want more, at least a second place.”
However, Max Verstappen crossed the line +00.26.305 from Alonso, which has been a constant throughout this new season. A gap difficult to close down, “The two Red Bulls they are always unbreakable and always super-fast”.
"Maybe Monaco"
After the Miami GP, Aston Martin keep the second place in the Constructors Championship as Mercedes caught up. Right now, Aston stand second with 98 points and Mercedes with 89 whilst the Red Bulls play in a league of their own with 210 points.
Alonso is currently 44 points away from Verstappen, however the positive vibes in the team invite the fans to believe until the end. Even the drives believe in the possibility of an upset, “Maybe Monaco, maybe Barcelona we have a possibility”. He added, “We take a podium going into the triple, Imola, Monaco and Barcelona, which hopefully we can keep on going.”
"A tough one"
The other side of the story is Lance Stroll, who had an unfortunate weekend, not making into Q2 during the Saturday evening. In addition, despite starting 18th at one point of the race the Canadian made it into the points but ended up in 12th place after a late and needed pit stop.
“It was just not our weekend. Yesterday we had a bad qualifying, did what we could today – but a tough one”, said Stroll as he remains 8th in the Drivers Championship with 23 points.