There was so much excitement to see Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz Jr. fighting for some points in the first race in the history of Madring that the disappointment was even greater when both touched at the start of the race, dashing the very few chances they seemed to have to move up positions. The Madrid driver ended up retiring and the Asturian finished 17th, far from any attempt. There was a small war on the track, another on the radio, and a quite intense one in front of the media microphones.
«He pushed me against the wall!», Alonso complained to his engineer while still on the track. On lap 12, Alonso had tried to overtake Sainz on the outside heading into turn 5, but the Madrid driver closed the door on him, too much according to the Asturian, who ended up hitting his wing against the Williams.
«He pushed me against the wall. At the start, he collided with two cars and now he throws me against the wall under braking. There was plenty of space on the left, there was no need to push someone against the wall», criticized the Asturian, referring to Sainz’s start.
When the lights went out, the Madrid driver went wide at the first braking and bumped a little into Tsunoda, although he avoided any penalty there. However, in the contact with Alonso, he was penalized with an extra five seconds. «Karma!», Alonso said over the radio when he learned of the penalty. «Honestly, there’s not much to say… I think he complained over the radio, so he got me penalized», Sainz responded later, already standing in the area reserved for media questions.
«I think the nature of that corner will always lead to this kind of collisions because there is only room for one car. And you can’t be looking in the rearview mirror while turning, you have to look ahead and focus on your own racing line. I don’t think Fernando was alongside me or anything like that», insisted Sainz.
A few meters away, Alonso again criticized Sainz’s action: «I think he received a penalty. If they think he deserves it, that’s fine with me. Neither of us finished in the points, but I think what he did was unnecessary. There was plenty of space on the left and I was stuck to the right wall at 340 kilometers per hour. At that speed, I prefer no one traps me against the wall and to be alive at the end of the race. There was no need to do that», detailed the Asturian, disappointed with the level of his Aston Martin during the weekend: «We had no pace».
Sainz retired on lap 43 when he was last, already without options, and admitted that the contact with Tsunoda at the start of the race «damaged the floor of my car». «Unfortunately, from then on the car was damaged and it was a survival race, because I lost rear downforce for the rest of the race. I wanted to make a good start to see if we could get something from this Grand Prix, but I think even with a perfect race we wouldn’t have finished above 16th place. There wasn’t much to fight for», he settled.
In the official press conference after the race, Antonelli and Verstappen repeated that Norris «deserved to win», but the British driver lamented the «bad luck» with the Virtual Safety Car. «We had bad luck, but it’s a rule that shouldn’t decide a race. I was the only one who didn’t get a free stop and lost 20 seconds compared to everyone else. It’s unfair», said the British driver. The VSC appeared just as the English driver crossed the finish line and disappeared when he started his pit entry. «Under normal conditions, Lando would have won», Antonelli acknowledged, «excited» to return to Madring next season.
