Alonso keen to bounce back in Monaco after finishing P19 on ‘tough’ Imola weekend

Fernando Alonso has set the goal of having a “perfect Saturday” next time out in Monaco after a challenging weekend at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, with the Spaniard ultimately ending Sunday’s race down in P19.

Alonso’s troubles started when he crashed his Aston Martin during Saturday’s final practice hour, sparking question marks over whether the car would be repaired in time for qualifying. Fortunately it was, but his luck did not improve.

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After a trip through the gravel in Q1, Alonso pitted in the final moments of the segment and subsequently exited the session in 20th and last, before being promoted to 19th when Logan Sargeant ahead had his lap time deleted.

The two-time world champion went on to start Sunday’s race from the pit lane, with his Aston Martin having undergone some late set-up changes, and the afternoon was essentially used as an extended test session for the squad.

With the car brought into the pits near the end, Alonso was classified in P19. There was also a slight scare earlier in the event when his front brakes caught fire as he was emerging from his pit stop, before being blown out when he got up to speed.

Reflecting on what the team had learned about the AMR24 during the race – on a weekend where they had brought upgrades – Alonso explained: “We need to wait and see all the data that we gathered today and ask the team what they saw [that was] different between the two cars.

“We opted to set-up different in my car and, yeah, let’s see if we found a direction for the next few races. It was a tough weekend, obviously qualifying dictates everything here.

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“It will be the same in Monaco, so we need to do that perfect Saturday that obviously makes things easier for Sunday.”

Asked if he had been keen to get the weekend over and move onto the next following his struggles on Saturday, the 42-year-old admitted: “Yeah, that kind of weekend. It’s a little bit [frustrating] that, [in] the race, you know more or less what is going to happen.

“You obviously hope for some Safety Cars or red flags or something that can mix a little bit the race. But today, as usual when we start at the back, zero, the most boring race ever. We just completed the race.”

It was a more successful day for team mate Lance Stroll who, after lining up in P13 on the grid, capitalised on a long opening stint and later worked his way forwards to claim two points in P9.

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“We were hoping for a Safety Car and so we were staying out a very long time, and then at the end it was fun to pass some guys,” the Canadian commented afterwards.

Pushed on whether the team are making progress in understanding their new package, Stroll added: “I think so, I hope so. We’re not as competitive as we want to be right now, we’ve got to keep pushing.”