Alonso rues lack of McLaren ‘ambition’

Editor

Finishing a lacklustre P14 at the Russian Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso missed out on his only chance of glory – a fastest lap – when McLaren would not put fresh hypers on his MCL33 and let him go for it.

The double World Champion spent the entire Russian Grand Prix lapping outside the top ten in what was overall a difficult weekend for the Woking team.

Stuck behind Lance Stroll at one stage, Alonso was given some advice on how to pass the Williams only to reply: “We are P15. I don’t care.”

What he did care about though was fastest lap.

He, however, wasn’t given the opportunity to go for that as McLaren refused to pit him for fresh rubber.

He feels that shows a lack of ambition.

Questioned about wanting it, he told reporters at Sochi: “Yes, when you are P14/15 it is good for the team, good for the guys working flat out every day, good for the sponsors and partners.

“But we were lacking ambition I think.”

After a long afternoon in Russia, the Spaniard is hoping for better at the upcoming Japanese GP.

He added: “It was quite a long race. We stopped on lap 4/5 to try to undercut some people. All of them had one set of yellow tyres, we had two.

“The yellow tyre for the whole race with no issues, and that did not come out as we expected. Overall we did not have the pace, as we said before the race.

“Nothing we can do now, so thinking of Japan and maybe we can score some points there.”

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