After a strong qualifying session yesterday, Aston Martin was out of contention early in the Sprint Shootout of the São Paulo Grand Prix of Formula 1. Fernando Alonso in particular had bad luck on his side, as he was hit by a out-of-control Alpine of Esteban Ocon during SQ1 when he was in a qualifying position for SQ2. Therefore, he will start 15th in the Sprint race, as the damage prevented him from participating in SQ2.
Quoted in Motorsport.com, the Spaniard lamented the outcome for himself and Aston Martin: ‘Unfortunately, we couldn’t compete in qualifying. It’s a shame that both cars were out of qualifying and there was a lot of damage to both cars. That’s not how we wanted it to be’.
Regarding his situation, Alonso commented: ‘I haven’t seen the replay yet, but someone told me that he lost control of the car a bit. It’s one of those wrong place at the wrong time situations’.