Untelevised footage has emerged of Fernando Alonso running off the track when Lewis Hamilton was a “little bit late” with his move to overtake the Spaniard at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Alonso recorded his third top ten result of the F1 2025 championship with a seventh-place finish at the Red Bull Ring.
Fernando Alonso: Hamilton was a little bit late
Having qualified 11th, missing out on a Q3 berth by 0.076s, Aston Martin ran Alonso on a one-stop strategy that meant he was ahead of Hamilton after the Ferrari driver came in for a pit stop.
Notably quicker than Alonso and with the assistance of DRS, Hamilton launched an attack on the Spaniard for position.
Riccardo Adami to Hamilton: “You’re racing Alonso, Alonso lap time 12.2.”
Hamilton drove up the inside of the Aston Martin at Turn 1 and closed the door on the exit of the corner with the double World Champion running off the track.
Alonso told Aston Martin: “Hamilton was a little bit late. I had to go off to avoid an incident, but all good.”
Andrew Vizard, his race engineer, replied: “Copy, we saw mate. Let’s just get back, you’re doing a good job.”
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Alonso completed the 70-lap Grand Prix in seventh place, the second of the drivers who ran a one-stop with the first, Liam Lawson, just ahead of him.
Alonso was within DRS of the Racing Bulls driver for large parts of the Grand Prix and was at one point told by Vizard that he needed to “lift and coast into Turn 4.”
The 43-year-old replied: “This pace is not real. As soon as I lose the DRS, you will see the real pace. So you decide.”
He explained to DAZN that he deliberately did not try to attack the New Zealander as he needed the DRS from the Racing Bulls driver to maintain his AMR25’s speed.
“I never wanted to pass Liam at any point,” Alonso said.
“I did a race as if it were a time trial on a bicycle. I just had to stay tucked in behind, take advantage of the three DRS straights, and then in the four corners in between push like it was qualifying to get back into the DRS.
“I think I was about half a second behind Lawson and by staying close to him I was gaining half a second per lap.
“In fact, they asked me: ‘When do we stop?’ and I replied: ‘When he stops!’ because I didn’t have that kind of pace.
“I was basically an extension of Lawson and thanks to that, I finished in the points. We didn’t have the pace or strength to go ahead and overtake him.”
Alonso is up to 13th in the Drivers’ Championship on 14 points, equal with his team-mate Lance Stroll.
Aston Martin is eighth in the Constructors’ Championship with 28 points, one behind Haas and two ahead of Sauber.
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