. Formula1 News, Wallpapers And Analysis: Alonso: Monaco was a missed opportunity

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Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Alonso: Monaco was a missed opportunity

Monaco could easily have been Fernando Alonso’s weekend. After dominating the timesheets in Thursday’s opening practice sessions, it looked as though victory was already in reach, but then a small mistake on Saturday morning damaged his Ferrari beyond repair and ruled him out of qualifying.

Forced to start the race from the pit lane, Alonso valiantly worked his way up the field and was set for sixth when Mercedes GP’s Michael Schumacher made a last-ditch overtaking manoeuvre. Although Schumacher was subsequently penalised for the move - and Alonso claimed the eight points - the Spaniard, who believed he had the pace to claim victory, can’t help feeling disappointed.
“The Monaco Grand Prix was bittersweet for me,” Alonso told Ferrari’s official website. “Clearly, in terms of the points I picked up, it was not good enough, especially as we were in the right shape to fight for the win. Following on from Barcelona, where we were not fast enough to win, on the Monaco track, where aerodynamics is less important, we were more competitive.”
But despite feeling frustrated with his mistake on Saturday, Alonso was pleased with his performance on Sunday and the team’s resilience.
“This result should make the team proud of all they did in difficult circumstances,” he continued. “To find yourself having to watch the screen right from the start (of qualifying), was really cruel. But I think this incident brought us even closer together as a group - it’s at times like these that you get the measure of people and the entire team was amazing.
“Sunday was very satisfying. We were aware that if we wanted to finish in the points, everything had to be perfect: the car, strategy, overtaking and tyres. And that was indeed the case. We had only finished rebuilding the car a few hours earlier and to finish such a tough race without the slightest problem shows just how great the lads are.”
With six races down, and 13 still to go, Alonso and Ferrari are now focusing their attentions on improving the F10’s pace ahead of the forthcoming Turkish Grand Prix, which will take place at Istanbul Park later this month.
“Now, we have to roll our sleeves up to push even more on the development of the car,” he concluded. “We still have to make up some ground in terms of performance and as we are in the thick of the fight, we don’t want to leave anything to chance as we try and reach our goals.”
Alonso lies third in the drivers’ championship on 75 points, just three behind Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.

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