Fernando Alonso says he has enjoyed renewing his rivalry with Lewis Hamilton this year after the pair went up against each other again in Melbourne.
Hamilton out-ran Alonso to finish second in the last race. However in Bahrain two races earlier Alonso successfully chased down and overtook his former team mate and 2007 world championship adversary to claim the last podium place.Alonso said he enjoyed his latest encounter with Hamilton, despite his rival prevailing in their contest. “It is a very good thing,” said Alonso. “He’s a legend of our sport.
“We saw in Australia, I think we spent the whole race within two seconds of distance, playing with the distance a little bit. He has no weak point, he does no mistakes.
“He’s a very tough competitor. To beat him, you need always something special. So this is the type of guys that you want to challenge.”
The Aston Martin driver is also eager to take the fight to Max Verstappen, who has won two of the three races so far this year.
“It’s the same with Max at the moment, he seems unbreakable,” said Alonso. “The Red Bull is fast. He does no mistakes. So one day, you will like to fight him. To see any weaknesses in his driving at the moment, it’s difficult to see.
“It’s the same with Lewis. You need a special weekend to beat them and this is what really motivates everyone.”
Selected Alonso radio messages from the Australian Grand Prix
When Alonso tried to close on Hamilton during the Australian Grand Prix, the Mercedes driver was able to respond. Alonso made one attempt following a Virtual Safety Car period which had been triggered by the retirement of Hamilton’s team mate George Russell:
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| Lap: 19/58 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cronin | Lean on the front-right. VSC is ending, so go back to start. On the right switch, start. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 20/58 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cronin | Hamilton 0.9 ahead, Gasly 3.4 behind. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alonso | Level five, mate. Race is long. We are one Mercedes out, one Ferrari out. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cronin | Yeah, copy mate. Agreed. So these tyres are still warming back up, so they’re still below what they were before the VSC. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 22/58 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cronin | Gap to Hamilton 1.9, Gasly 2.6. Gasly is under pressure from Sainz behind, so he’s pushing. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Later in the race Alonso made another attempt to close on Hamilton, but again the Mercedes driver responded by increasing his pace:
| Lap: 37/58 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cronin | Copy mate, there’s 22 laps to go. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cronin | Hamilton 1.1, Sainz 1.3. 1.2 for Sainz. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 38/58 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cronin | Hamilton is 1.0. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 40/58 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cronin | Hamilton 1.7, Sainz 1.5. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alonso | Difficult to get close, mate. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cronin | Yeah, copy. It’s 18 laps to go after this one. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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melanos
27th April 2023, 14:45
Tough? Boy, does it sound sarcastic
pastaman
28th April 2023, 3:14
Sounds more like you are projecting your own feelings about one or the other driver onto the words being spoken.
Nick T.
27th April 2023, 17:08
I don’t think so. It’s usually easy to tell when Alonso is being sarcastic as he has made many hilariously sarcastic compliments / comments designed to get under the skin of another driver before. Like when he said Massa waa his fastest ever teammate while teammates w/Kimi and it was clearly meant as a jab at Kimi). To be fair though, while Alonso dominated Massa, he dominated Kimi much more (often finishing 40+ seconds/6 places ahead of Kimi and winning their quali battle something like 15-3). Clearly though, LH had been his toughest and only teammate to truly challenge him.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
27th April 2023, 17:46
Ah, strange he said that, since indeed hamilton has been more competitive than massa the year he faced alonso.