Fernando Alonso finished fifth and Lance Stroll seventh in Hungary, an impressive result just one weekend on from a disastrous Belgian Grand Prix for Aston Martin
Fernando Alonso has admitted he found Aston Martin’s newfound pace at the Hungarian Grand Prix “concerning”. The Spaniard finish fifth, two places ahead of team-mate Lance Stroll, as the team recorded by far their best result of the season so far.
And it came just one week on from perhaps the nadir of their season so far. Aston Martin were the slowest team at the Belgian Grand Prix, qualifying 19th and 20th for Sunday’s race at Spa-Francorchamps and failing to get near the points.
Naturally, Alonso and his colleagues were delighted with the turnaround in Budapest. But he admitted afterwards that, other than perhaps the new front wing design they debuted there, they could not yet figure out why they had managed to find so much speed compared to the week before.
“It is a surprise, definitely,” said the Spaniard. “It’s a nice surprise. The good thing is that we were competitive and we were fast. The concerning thing is that we don’t know why.
“We need this week at the factory to analyse exactly what are the differences between Spa and Hungary, what are the differences on the car as well, on the setup, on the aero devices that we were racing with. The main thing for us was the front wing that was new this weekend. If that front wing gives us that much of performance, that’s very good news, but I think that has to be understood at the moment.”
As such, Alonso is cautious about what the final 10 rounds of the season may hold for the team. And Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack is also not getting ahead of himself as he believes it’s possible that their strong pace at the Hungaroring was simply “circumstantial”.
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He said: “Fifth and seventh place in Budapest is a good way to wrap up the first half of the year. Fernando and Lance have been excellent all weekend and converted our strong qualifying result into important points.
“They both made the one-stop strategy work and did a great job of managing the medium tyres during the long first stint. It has been our most competitive weekend this season so well done to the entire team for the great preparation and execution.
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“You cannot jump, normally, from the back of the midfield to the front of the midfield within seven days, We need to be realistic. We had very difficult races before, not only Spa. It does not mean that we have managed a complete turnaround. I think it’s probably also a bit circumstantial. The fight in the midfield will continue, I’m sure.
“It is always nice to start the summer break off the back of a good result and these 16 points will give everybody in the team a boost. We will take a few weeks’ holiday and come back ready to build on this result in the races to come.”
