‘The luck is not with us this year’ – Alonso rues ‘very frustrating’ retirement at Monza

Fernando Alonso was left to rue a “very frustrating” end to his race at the Italian Grand Prix after being forced to retire due to a suspension failure on his Aston Martin, with the Spaniard disappointed to miss out on more points.

Having lined up in P8 on the grid, Alonso enjoyed a strong start to the race as he tried to chase Gabriel Bortoleto up ahead. When the two both pitted on the same lap, it was Alonso who emerged ahead of the Kick Sauber in P7.

However, things unravelled when the two-time World Champion was hit by a suspension failure on the AMR25 shortly afterwards, forcing him to return to the pits and retire the car.

Given that the team are locked in a close midfield scrap with their competitors – with Racing Bulls now just one point away from sixth-placed Aston Martin – Alonso conceded that it was tough to lose out on another opportunity to add to their tally.

“[It was] very frustrating, because we were into the seventh place I think,” the 44-year-old explained later on. “To secure seventh place [would have meant] another six points for the championship and we lost again.

“I remember [in] Monaco retiring the car with an engine problem being P6, today suspension problem being P7, so the luck definitely is not with us this year and we are losing a lot of points.

“But a well executed race, we overtook [Kimi] Antonelli at the start, we overtook Bortoleto at the pit stop and everything was looking good.”

When asked how frustrating it felt to leave everything on the line only to come away with no points, Alonso responded: “It is frustrating but, yeah, I’m getting used to [it] unfortunately.”

There was also disappointment on the other side of the garage for Lance Stroll, who ran a long first stint after starting from P16 on the grid in the hope of benefitting from a Safety Car. This did not occur, meaning that the Canadian ended the Grand Prix down in 18th and last place.

The squad will be hoping for better when the paddock moves on to Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the weekend of September 19-21, a venue that was the scene of Stroll’s first F1 podium back in 2017.