Fernando Alonso experienced an unusual moment in Formula 1 during the Sprint qualifying for the Canadian GP. The Aston Martin driver crashed at the end of SQ1 after locking the front wheels and ended up losing the chance to compete in SQ2, despite initially advancing to the next phase.
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The accident happened at turn 3 of the Montreal circuit, and although the car did not suffer serious damage, Alonso was unable to return to the track. As a result, the Spaniard will start only from 16th position in the Sprint race this Saturday.
Alonso admitted that the mistake happened when he was trying to extract the maximum possible from the AMR26. According to the two-time F1 champion, after locking the wheels, there was no way to avoid the collision with the protection barrier of the Canadian track.
“I locked the front wheels. After that, you just become a passenger and there is no room to avoid anything here in Canada,” said the Aston Martin driver after the session.
Alonso acknowledged that he was driving on the limit to compensate for the lack of car performance: “I was pushing too hard. We went beyond the limit,” the Spaniard commented when analyzing the incident that ended his participation still in SQ1.
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Even with the frustration from the accident, the veteran highlighted that the team achieved a performance above expectations before the crash. The Spaniard recalled that Aston Martin had not been able to advance from the first phase of qualifying, both in GPs and Sprint sessions, throughout the season.
“We are a bit behind and have no pace. We were P14 in SQ1, so I think we were seven or eight positions above where we normally should be,” Alonso concluded.
The result ended up turning a promising moment into disappointment for the British team. Still, the performance shown before the accident indicated a small improvement for Aston Martin in yet another weekend that had been difficult for the team in Montreal.
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