- The Asturian entered the finish line 8th, but he lost 5 seconds for his contact with Gasly and another 5 for skipping a curve.
- Verstappen prevails in Miami, Sainz returns to the podium and Alonso messes it up… and does not score .
The joy of Fernando Alonso in Miami remained in a well. Or, rather, at the chicane of turn 14, the one at the entrance to the tunnel just before the very long back straight of the last track to enter the Formula 1 calendar .
The Asturian driver entered the finish line of the fifth race of the championship in a more than optimal 8th position , with what initially seemed like he was going to end the drought that he had dragged on since the Bahrain GP . However, two of his own errors cost him penalties that, in the end, sent him to the final 11th place , with which he added 0 points.
The first punishment met him long before reaching the finish line. It was because of his overly optimistic overtaking of Pierre Gasly , around lap 40. The Spaniard believed he had enough space and that the Frenchman had opened the door for him at the first corner of the circuit, he threw the car at him and hit him in the rear .
The consequence was not only that Alonso gained the position, but that the AlphaTauri was slightly affected and, minutes later, collided with Lando Norris because it had a faulty steering.
The stewards did not doubt it: Alonso was guilty of the initial touch and, therefore, deserved 5 seconds of punishment on his total time. “It’s fair”, admitted the man from Oviedo after the race about this action.
After this punishment, which Alonso fulfilled as soon as he crossed the finish line, he went from being 8th to 9th , but the stewards immediately announced two more investigations for the same infraction: skipping turn 14.
This was one of the trickiest points on the circuit. Not in vain, both Carlos Sainz on Friday and Esteban Ocon on Saturday crashed just at the entrance of the previous corner, since the grip of the asphalt in that area was much less. For this reason, squaring the car perfectly in that area was key not only to avoid a crash, but also to then face the climb under the tunnel safely. In the event of a poor line , as was seen throughout the weekend on several occasions, the only solution was to cut the vertices of said chicane and make it straight.
Alonso did it twice in the race. For the first, the judges considered a warning sufficient but for the second action, given the recurrence, they decided to penalize him with 5 more seconds on his total race time, in addition to 2 penalty points on his super license: he has 5 accumulated for other infractions in the last 12 months and if it reaches 12 points, according to the norm, a race should be excluded. No one has reached that limit since he was implanted.
Alonso entered the finish line with less than those 5 seconds ahead of the drivers who finished behind him, Lance Stroll and Alex Albon , so once added to his total time he fell from 9th to 11th place.
Having added double the points he had when the race began, Alonso had to settle for finishing the fifth round of the championship, again, with a 0 as spoils.