Alonso: Feeling more of a racer again

Michelle Foster
Fernando Alonso Alpine

Fernando Alonso Alpine

Feeling more confident in his A52, Fernando Alonso says his “instincts” are coming to the fore, extending his run of points-scoring finish to five at Silverstone.

Although the Alpine driver missed out on a Q3 berth by 0.025s in Friday evening’s qualifying for the British Grand Prix’s sprint qualifying, an epic opening lap in the Saturday evening 17-lap dash saw him finish P7.

It was P7 again for the Spaniard in Sunday’s grand prix, extending his run of top-ten results to five.

That has put him P11 in the Drivers’ Championship with 26 points.

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Speaking about his race at the Silverstone circuit, he told the official F1 website: “Very busy, we never have an easy race – we’re always in different battles at different types of race.

“I think [it was] a strong weekend.

“We’ve been in the points for the last four or five races, our best result was in Baku, P6, but it was a strange race.

“So today, P7, was probably our strongest weekend on race pace – [I’m] happy for that.

“A difficult race for tyre management with a lot of blister concerns, but we managed it quite well and delivered a good result, I think.”

The double World Champion has only missed out on scoring in three of this year’s 10 races.

While he was initially trailing his team-mate Esteban Ocon as he found his feet after two years out of Formula 1, Alonso has come to the fore in recent races.

Asked if the ‘sharpness’ was returning to his racing, he replied: “Yeah, I think I’m feeling better and I’m feeling more of a racer now.

“The first couple of weekends, Bahrain, Imola, it was like everything was starting from zero.

“[I was] very conscious of many things and trying not to make mistakes for the team.

“It’s different now, I’ve got more confidence in the car so I can use my instinct a little bit more now.”