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Fernando Alonso had a race of two halves at Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix, having a strong start to move his under powered McLaren from tenth on the grid to seventh on the track within the opening lap of the race.
Due to the power deficit of Alonso's Honda engine, the Spaniard soon slipped through the field and dropped out of the points paying positions, being a sitting duck on the long straights of Spa. This removed him from contention and he was unable to defend or challenge for position. He then retired from the race in its second half due to a supposed power unit issue.
"In general, it’s been a good weekend,” said Alonso. “We played a good team game in qualifying, we had a great start – taking the outside lane was the right decision – and we were seventh after the first lap. It was fun for the first three or four laps! Then we tried to defend our position, but in the middle of the straights some cars passed us without even activating the DRS," he added.
“For sure, is not easy to race like this, as you cannot have any good wheel-to-wheel battles. It was a difficult afternoon and we were not competitive in race trim. The car was too slow on the straights and it was impossible to have any battles out there, so points were also impossible today. Eventually, we had to stop due to an engine issue. The situation is what it is and we need to improve it as soon as we can. I know the team is working day and night improving the car, and we hope we can see the results soon," he concluded.
Due to the uncompetitive nature of McLaren in 2017 and with Alonso's contract with the team running out at the end of the season, the Spaniard's future is unknown beyond this year. The double champion has confirmed that he has received a number of offers for 2018 and that his future will be decided within the next two weeks. One such rumour is that he may be on his way to Williams for next year, after he was apparently courted by the team in Belgium.
Chris Soulsby
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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f1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
Lol true.. but this is McLaren.. MCLAREN.. One of the biggest names in motorsport. They shouldn't be there, and neither should Alonso, arguably the best driver produced this century