Alonso Sees a Shift in Aston Martin's Trend: 'We Deserved It Already'

Fernando Alonso celebrated his ninth position in the Spanish Grand Prix, marking his first points of the World Championship, and asserted that Aston Martin 'deserved them already'. The Spaniard explained that they had three weekends with strong performances: 'In Imola, we deserved it for our pace and for a good qualifying, and in Monaco, even a sixth or seventh place'. For him, this confirms a 'change in trend' and that they must maintain the 'momentum' for the next race in Canada.

Alonso expressed being 'satisfied, especially for the fans', who experienced the final laps intensely. However, he acknowledged that the race was complicated due to the high degradation of the front left tyre and the lack of straight-line speed: 'The speed on the straight was really cruel'. Despite this, he made several spectacular overtakes: 'We need to start overtaking on the straight with DRS like the others and not invent suicidal moves'. He also revealed that his two fastest final laps were in response to a potential penalty for Max Verstappen: 'I pressed the energy button to drain the battery completely and I think we achieved it by two tenths'.

Regarding strategy, he admitted that early degradation forced him to change plans, although they decided 'a bit late'. Finally, he spoke about his battle in the midfield: 'Now we are between 10th and 16th, but we are no longer stuck at 19th and 20th'. Even so, he noted that they need to improve on Sundays, where they continue to lose positions.

Carlos Sainz finished fourteenth in the Spanish Grand Prix after a challenging race, marked by incidents from the start and technical problems. 'It was a race in no man's land', summarized the Williams driver, affected by a touch at the start that forced him to change the front wing and by 'engine overheating issues', which prevented him from maintaining a competitive pace.

The Madrid-born driver lamented that all this happened precisely in his home race: 'It annoys me that just the home weekend is the one where everything went wrong with the car'. He believes that even without problems, 'at most' they would have scraped 'one or two points', but insists that not much has been lost in terms of the championship. His focus is already on the next race: 'I hope that in Canada it goes much better, to be back in Q3 and in the points'.

Sainz acknowledged that the race pace in clean air was not bad, but everything got complicated from qualifying. Even so, he remains confident: 'We were always fighting among the top eight and that's where I hope to be in Canada'. He apologized to the fans for not being able to offer them a better performance, although he hopes 'to return in 2026' with a better result at home.

Regarding the car, he confirmed that there will be no immediate improvements: 'We won't bring anything until after the summer'. Despite everything, he is optimistic: 'Barcelona is the worst circuit for our car, by far, so in Canada I hope to be fighting for the top ten again'.