Fernando Alonso: I thought Leclerc would be fined

At the British Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso showed his best result of the season: fifth place. His teammate Esteban Ocon stopped with a fuel pump failure. In the Constructors’ Championship, Alpine narrowed the gap with McLaren to six points in the battle for fourth place.

Fernando Alonso (5th): “A fun race – I’m happy to have finished fifth. I was hoping for a dramatic turn in the last laps as this could lead us to the podium, but at least it was great to fight for top five positions.

I think realistically I should have finished fourth as I saw Charles Leclerc often change lines on the straight ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Given the repercussions of such actions in my case in Canada, I thought it was impossible to act like that and he would be fined.

Evaluating the weekend as a whole, our car was very good and I felt more competitive compared to other races this season. We had a steady pace in the race. I look forward to continuing in the same vein and hope that we will maintain our competitive level in the next races.

Congratulations to Carlos Sainz on his first win. I’m glad Guanyu Zhou is doing well after the incident at the start. It shows how far the safety level has progressed in Formula 1 today.”

Esteban Ocon (retired): “The most important thing is that Zhou is okay after such a serious accident. It happened right in front of me – I was lucky enough to avoid serious consequences, but the right side of the car was damaged after contact with Alex Albon.

I have to say the guys have done an incredible job restoring the car before the restart – a big thank you to them. The car was fast in the race but unfortunately had to retire on lap 38 due to a fuel pump failure.

In general, it cannot be said that the weekend went smoothly. There were problems both in the second part of qualifying and in the race – you have to study everything carefully to find out the reason. On the other hand, we learned a lot this weekend and I’m happy for the team, which has earned a lot of points thanks to Fernando. Now we go to the next race in a few days.”

Otmar Safnauer, Team Principal: “First of all, the good news is that the drivers involved in the incident on the first lap are okay. This is testament to the extraordinary safety standards in Formula 1.

Then we witnessed an exciting Grand Prix, which became a real advertisement for our sport. We are very happy with Fernando’s fifth place. He drove well throughout the race and the team worked well in the pit stop during the safety car, allowing him to stay ahead of Lando Norris and compete in the front rows in the closing laps.

Talking about Esteban, he also drove great after his car was damaged at the start of the race. The team did a great job getting him back on his feet so he could fight for the points. Unfortunately, an issue that we believe was related to the fuel pump forced it to stop. We must quickly understand the reasons to ensure that we achieve our goals in the future.

The team leaves Silverstone with ten points earned – a good result. We are now looking forward to Austria next week where we will try to score points with two cars.”