Alonso thrilled to score points in Qatar despite car issue while Stroll gives his take on ‘unintentional’ Albon clash

Fernando Alonso was delighted to leave the Qatar Grand Prix with points after ending the race in seventh place – especially as he had to overcome a technical problem with his car – while Aston Martin team mate Lance Stroll suffered an early exit following a Lap 1 collision with Alex Albon.

In what proved to be a highly eventful 57 laps at the Lusail International Circuit, Alonso appeared to be struggling with the AMR24 at times, particularly when he lost several positions during the first Safety Car restart.

READ MORE: Verstappen surges to victory ahead of Leclerc and Piastri in action-packed Qatar Grand Prix amid three Safety Cars

This prompted some unhappy radio messages from the two-time world champion, who reported experiencing the “same problem” for “two years” as his straight-line pace fell away. But his fortunes improved as the event went on, leading to him climbing up to a final result of P7.

When asked after the race if he was happy with the outcome, Alonso responded: “Yeah, definitely. The final result is great, P7, six points for the team is very good at this part of the championship. At the beginning we had some issues, it’s a well-known problem.

“We’re struggling with something on the car, I think it’s deployment of the energy or something after the Safety Car – the car is still thinking that we are behind the Safety Car, so we don’t deploy all the energy and the electrical power.

“We are lacking a little bit of top speed and we are vulnerable at that part of the race. But yeah, after that obviously we capitalised on some DNFs and penalties, so we were ready and there to take it.

HIGHLIGHTS: Relive the action from a thrilling Qatar Grand Prix as Verstappen wins ahead of Leclerc and Piastri

“As I said, [I’m] happy for the team, and hopefully we finish on a positive note also in Abu Dhabi [for] this championship.”

While it was a good day for Alonso, Stroll’s race in Lusail was over much sooner. The Canadian made contact with the Williams of Albon during the opening lap, leaving him with damage on his car.

After serving a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision, Stroll retired from the event. Reflecting on the incident, the 26-year-old said: “[It] felt really strange.

“I was not trying to fight him, I was just trying to hold my line on the inside of the corner, but I just started picking up huge levels of understeer and washed out and made contact, so yeah, [it was] completely unintentional.”

MONDAY MORNING DEBRIEF: How the Qatar GP ended up being far better than damage limitation for Ferrari

And when pushed on what could be taken forward from Qatar through to the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Stroll added: “The car seemed a bit better in qualifying, but still challenging for sure all weekend.”

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