Alonso admits Aston Martin are ‘doing something really wrong’ as he misses out on Monza points by 0.2s

Fernando Alonso pushed as hard as he could in the closing laps of the Italian Grand Prix, but he found himself coming up just short in his pursuit of points at Monza, finishing 11th – less than two tenths of a second behind Kevin Magnussen.

The Spaniard two-stopped and ran in the top 10 for chunks of the race, but found himself playing catch up after being jumped by the one-stopping Williams of Alex Albon and Magnussen’s Haas.

With the Dane carrying a 10-second penalty to the flag, both Albon and Alonso were chasing hard to get within that margin of the Haas. The Williams man just managed it, but Alonso did not.

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“Disappointed because we did a very good start, overtook Nico [Hulkenberg] and then very good strategy with the two stops, we undercut Alex [Albon] and were running P9 comfortably,” Alonso said.

“But at the end with the second stop, we could not catch quick enough Alex and we finished a second behind him and one-tenth behind Magnussen so for one second, two positions [lost] is costly and painful.”

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Alonso has scored in the past two races, while Aston Martin look assured of fifth in the constructors’ this season, being 40 points ahead of RB.

But Alonso couldn’t hide his frustration post-race at battling with cars lower down the field, having been fighting for rostrums last season.

“I hope we understand things that we are doing wrong, as definitely we are doing something really wrong and we get better for Baku,” Alonso concluded.

As for his team mate, Lance Stroll started down the order and wound up propping up the field after taking a third pit stop on Sunday, in an optimistic bid to deny anyone in the top 10 the fastest lap bonus point.

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“[The pace] was as expected, just not competitive this weekend,” the Canadian said, succinctly summing up a disappointing showing in Italy. He’ll hope for better in Baku, a venue where he finished in the points last season.

Alonso and Stroll both at least have the hope that Aston Martin can entice legendary F1 designer Adrian Newey to join the team, with Aston and Alpine emerging as the front-runners to claim Newey’s signature in recent weeks.