© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
In a bewildering statement to the Dutch media Fernando Alonso said he was defending hard against Lewis Hamilton in part to help Max Verstappen.
Lewis Hamilton was making his way through the field at the Hungarian Grand Prix until he got to P5, right behind Fernando Alonso.
Alonso decided to defend hard against Hamilton, he moved all over the place, and even Lewis told his team at one point that the Spaniard’s defending was “dangerous”.
“Lewis always complains. I didn’t hear anything from the FIA so I guess it’s okay,” Alonso replied when he was asked about Lewis’ statement.
Ultimately Alonso held Lewis up for a few laps, which was enough to prevent him from getting to race leader Esteban Ocon in time to overtake him and take the win.
“I didn’t know that probably that was enough to hold the victory for Esteban, but anyway it was ten laps from the end, we tried to hold the position but eventually it was not possible,” Alonso continued.
“Lewis had an amazing pace in the last couple of laps, it was not enough. Honestly, I think that Lewis was making a small mistake in the last two corners, that’s my honest opinion.
“Because he had so much pace, you can’t take eight laps to pass with that pace advantage. And in fact, after changing a few lines, he could pass Carlos [Sainz] immediately one lap after.
“It was not difficult to pass, but it took him four or fiver laps to figure it out, that’s my opinion.”
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However, in a bewildering statement, Alonso said that holding up Lewis was also important for Max Verstappen, who was at the time running in P10.
“I tried my best. It was difficult to keep Hamilton behind me,” explained the Alpine driver.
“It was important for the win in the race, because Hamilton was very fast. It was also important for Max!
“I tried to give him space, but not too much space. Otherwise he would have passed,” Alonso concluded.
SilverArrows.Net reaction:
Let’s get this straight, Alonso was thinking of Max Verstappen’s championship chances while holding up Hamilton?
So, for some unknown reason, Alonso would like to help Verstappen beat Hamilton in the championship, even though he drives for a completely different team.
Or could it be that Alonso wasn’t trying to help Max, but he actually just doesn’t want Lewis to win another championship? Whatever the case may be, the fact that a driver would admit this publicly is beyond head-scratching.
