There were plenty of winners and losers during the Chinese Grand Prix and as is always the case in Formula 1, there’s only so much the driver in the car can do.
For example, Yuki Tsunoda gave Kevin Magnussen as much space as possible and still saw his Grand Prix end a long time before the chequered flag flew.
Commentating on the race for BBC 5 Live, Formula E star Sam Bird was very impressed by one driver in particular who didn’t end up having the best race.
It was another straightforward victory for Max Verstappen as he extended his lead at the top of the Drivers’ Championship.
Red Bull were denied a one-two by Lando Norris who put in his best performance of the season to convert his 4-place start into a 2-place finish, demoting Sergio Perez to third.
Fernando Alonso may not feel he missed out on a podium necessarily despite starting ahead of Norris.
However, his race was impacted by a very poor strategy from Aston Martin.
Despite that, Alonso pulled off a magnificent start to the Chinese Grand Prix and was briefly running behind Verstappen.
He used all of his racecraft to get the better of his Mexican rival heading into the first few corners.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Aston Martin F1 Team from team principal to lineage
Fernando Alonso has a great start but a disappointing end to Chinese Grand Prix
It’s been an eventful few weeks for two-time world champion Fernando Alonso.
After another strong showing in Japan two weeks ago, he announced he was signing a new contract with Aston Martin.
There was plenty of speculation surrounding his future with Red Bull and Mercedes pondering their next moves in the market.
Instead, he’ll continue to be Aston Martin’s de-facto number-one driver until at least 2026 when the new regulations are introduced and Honda becomes the team’s power unit supplier.
The start of the race couldn’t have gone any better for Alonso during the Chinese Grand Prix.
He might have made one small strategy error briefly afterwards, but that’s not the reason his race unravelled.
READ MORE: Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso’s life outside F1 from net worth to Cars 2
Fernando Alonso given no help by Aston Martin team in Shanghai
Commentating on the opening corners, Bird said: “Fantastic start by Fernando Alonso, firing those medium compound tyres up, absolutely perfectly off the start-line.”
On Sky Sports F1, Nico Rosberg was equally impressed and said: “So Fernando [Alonso] did such a great job, so [Sergio] Perez couldn’t go out here any further because he was already there and he just bombed it down into the corner.
“And it’s so difficult because you don’t know where the grip is because it’s your first time there, he just bombed it down the inside and here we see a great move from [Lance] Stroll.
“That’s hyper-aggressive, you’re really relying on the guy on the outside to A, see you and B, make space and that was really an aggressive line.”
Unfortunately for the £275,000-a-week driver, that’s where the good times ended.
The Chinese Grand Prix became a battle of strategy and after a strong start, Alonso was caught out by a poorly timed safety car.
He took too much out of his tyres defending from Sergio Perez and it didn’t take long for the Mexican and Lando Norris to pass him.
Alonso locked up before the safety car unintentionally leading to his teammate running into the back of Daniel Ricciardo, ruining his race.
The 42-year-old still had to pit to change tyre compounds and on new medium tyres he recovered to 7, but it feels like a wasted opportunity for Aston Martin, especially with Stroll missing out on another top-ten finish.
The post ‘Fantastic’: Sam Bird admits £275k-a-week driver performed ‘absolutely perfectly’ during Chinese GP appeared first on F1 Oversteer.