29 July 2023 , 18:50
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Fernando Alonso received no penalty after being accused of dangerous driving in the Belgian Grand Prix Sprint – but received no other gifts on track on a thoroughly miserable birthday for the Spaniard.
He turned 42 on Saturday and would have hoped to celebrate that milestone with a good performance and points. But the racing action yielded little joy from start to finish.
First came a disappointing result in qualifying for the Sprint. He was unable to set a time after team-mate Lance Stroll crashed in SQ2, condemning him to 15th on the grid for the short-form race.
Alonso's chances of points were slim already and evaporated entirely when he span and beached his Aston Martin in the gravel. That came after an on-track incident with Nico Hulkenberg which was referred to the stewards.
He was accused of defending dangerously against the Haas. But the stewards eventually ruled that the wet conditions were enough of a mitigating factor and let the Spaniard off just with a warning.
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"Alonso was exiting the pits and moved over to the left, causing car 27 to have to take action to avoid a collision," a statement read. "Alonso explained that he had no visibility to the rear at the time and that he had driven on the far left of the track at that location on every lap in order to maximize his forward visibility.
"While the stewards accept these facts, the move from the right to the left in this case, while slower than the cars that had remained on track, caused the potential for a collision. Considering the conditions in mitigation, the Stewards issue a warning."
Alonso span and beached his Aston Martin in the gravel during the Sprint (Sky Sports)Alonso insisted he was not at fault for that incident, but took full responsibility for the error which ended his Sprint. "I haven't seen the replay but, yeah, it was my mistake," he told reporters.
"It was a bad day in general. Not even a qualifying lap in SQ2 with the red flag, and now we were well out of the points. It was worth risking but, yeah, let's see tomorrow if we can take some points."
He will be in more contention to do exactly that after qualifying ninth for Sunday's Grand Prix. He will have team-mate Stroll one place behind him on the grid as Aston Martin bid to go into the summer break with a double top-10 finish after seeing their early-season momentum fade.