According to the FIA, Fernando Alonso committed serious blunders during the final red flag of the qualifying session for the Hungarian Grand Prix. They even took him out of his car, then put him back…
Saturday’s F1 qualifying session at the Hungaroring was initially chaotic due to the changeable weather, but two accidents made the events even more unpredictable. First, Sergio Pérez slammed his car into the wall in Q1, and then Juki Cunoda in the middle of Q3.
The latter accident created a special situation. As more rain threatened, the field completed the first quick laps earlier than usual, then quickly returned to the second round, so when the Japanese RB flew into the wall, there were still 2 minutes and 13 seconds left in the practice at the time of the red flag interruption. This was just enough to complete one more measured lap (at least the beginning of the field), and the FIA did not cancel the qualification, but – with some phase delay – indicated that there would be a restart.
According to Fernando Alonso, the race management made several mistakes. On the one hand, he felt that a double yellow signal should have been issued before the red flag so that those on the timed lap could still complete their lap.
“The truth is that the FIA sometimes does it well, and sometimes makes gross mistakes. One was committed today. They gave the red flag when I was in the last corner, which is surprising. The accident happened in turn eight (actually turn 5, ed.), and they usually wait for the cars to finish their laps. This is the unwritten habit”
Alonso said.
This custom was probably overridden this time by the fact that the medical car had to be sent to the track in the case of Cunoda’s accident. In such cases, the race management can hardly take into account who is where on the track in the measured lap. According to the team, an impact with a force of 50 Gs was measured on Cunoda’s car, which justified the immediate interruption.
Fernando Alonso (Photo: XPB)
Alonso then became the “victim” of another FIA step. As he returned to the pits, he was taken out of his car together with Lance Stroll, and then they indicated that they should still leave the parc fermé because there would be a restart…
“As soon as I got into the pits, Lance and I were ushered into the parc fermé. The pit lane was closed. We got to Parc fermé, got out of the car, and then they announced that Q3 would start again. We got back in the car, buckled our seat belts and went to the garage.”
“I didn’t have any more tires, so I didn’t go out more. These kinds of things don’t usually happen in these competitions” Alonso criticized.
Apart from him, only Max Verstappen did not drive for another lap at the restart. This, however, had nothing to do with the parc fermés commotion. “I didn’t even want to go anymore. I didn’t have any new tires. They were used, so I would never have repaired them. I didn’t see the point in waiting in the pit lane” said the defending champion.
His boss, Christian Horner, meanwhile, explained that they wanted to stay out of the pit lane tumult and the “games” that followed the restart.
Fernando Alonso (Photo: XPB)
Only Daniel Ricciardo managed to improve in the end, jumping from 10th to 9th place, ahead of Cunoda, who had an accident. The others either did not complete their measured lap or were far behind their best on used and cooled tires. Winner Lando Norris said he was trying to defend his first place and just wanted to be on the track, that’s for sure.
As for the closure of the pit lane, after Cunoda’s accident, the FIA already allowed photographers into the area, which was then forced to evacuate again. This also indicated that at first it was not clear to them either, whether there would be a restart or not. The reason behind this was that it only became clear later that Cunoda’s car could be quickly removed from the scene, so there would still be time to continue.
Alonso ended up taking the 7th and Stroll the 8th starting spot. According to the Spaniard, the interruptions in the hairline did not affect their results overall. “I was one and a half tenths better until the last corner when the red flag came, and maybe that didn’t change anything” said the two-time world champion, who was 0.138 seconds behind Charles Leclerc’s 6th place time.
