‘It hurts always the same’ – Alonso reacts to his anticlimactic 400th Grand Prix appearance after DNF

Hitting the remarkable milestone of 400 Grands Prix did not quite go to plan for Fernando Alonso as some unavoidable bad luck led to him retiring the car from the race in Mexico City.

Aston Martin have struggled to consistently finish in the points this season, but things were looking up after the former world champion and his team mate Lance Stroll had a strong start at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

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After qualifying in P13 and P14 respectively, they each made up a couple of places on the opening lap before the Safety Car neutralised the field while Yuki Tsunoda’s crashed RB was recovered.

Tehn, just 15 laps in, Alonso was called into the pits and was forced to retire from the race due to a suspected brake cooling issue caused by some debris stuck in his car.

Speaking after the race, he said: “It was okay, the start was good. Obviously a lot of action in front of us so we capitalised on that but apparently there was a bit of debris on the front brake ducts and the temperatures were over the moon.

“We tried to mitigate that, moving the brake balance rearwards and different actions, but it was still not under control so unfortunately we had to retire the car – a bit unlucky today.”

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The Spaniard hasn’t had the best of luck when it comes to landmark occasions in F1 – he also suffered a DNF at his 300th Grand Prix back in 2018, as well as his 200th at the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Asked whether it hurts more due to it being such a special milestone, Alonso explained: “It hurts always the same, to be honest, when you don’t see the chequered flag. It doesn’t matter which number.

“We are here to compete. In a way, when you have to retire the car it’s better when you are not in a super competitive weekend. It was maybe unlikely to score points today so hopefully more luck will come and we come back stronger on the next race and next year here.”

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His team mate also failed to score this weekend, crossing the line in P11 while Pierre Gasly claimed the final point of the race. Although Stroll narrowly missed out, he had some entertaining battles throughout the 71 laps, including with Sergio Perez.

“A hard-fought race, we did everything we could today,” the Canadian concluded. “We just need to find some speed in the car.

“I think we’re 40 seconds behind [Kevin] Magnussen in the Haas so we’re in a midfield fight but we’re 40 seconds behind them today. A lot of work to do.”