The succession of calamities in Singapore became intolerable for Fernando Alonso, visibly upset after crossing the finish line in last position.. “It was a race to forget, we didn't have the pace we expected,” admitted the two-time world champion, relegated by the lack of competitiveness of his Aston Martin, a rigorous five-second penalty and a pitiful last pit-stop.

As soon as the checkered flag fell, Alonso's illuminating silence on the radio summed up the situation in the team led by Mike Krack. His engineers must have had enough after the Asturian's previous message: “The car is undriveable”. In a favorable environment like Marina Bay, the AMR23 was a hopeless disappointment.

“We must analyze all the details, because the car was very difficult to drive. It had very little grip in the rear. So yes, because of that we kill the tires very quickly after the stop. “It was a very tough race,” Alonso admitted in the mixed zone.. The initial mission of monitoring Lewis Hamilton, his main adversary in the World Cup, vanished almost from the beginning.

100,000 km in the race

Everything started to go wrong on the second lap due to a left suspension arm.. After completing 15 laps, Alonso surpassed another historic record in F1, by crossing 100,000 kilometers in the race.. However, not even that milestone could save his catastrophic Sunday.

“Too many things have happened: a mistake when entering the pits, a not very good stop, traffic…”, listed Alonso. A chain of misfortunes that began during the first safety car period, when Alonso was penalized for “crossing the white line (and the curb) during his entry into the pit lane”. This was explained by the stewards, in reference to article 12.2.1 i) of the Sports Code, which became famous after several similar episodes of Hamilton in the 2018 and 2019 German GPs.. The punishment being deserved, the truth is that the FIA did not apply itself so severely to Max Verstappen, who saved his three investigations during Saturday's qualifying session with two reprimands and a fine of 5,000 euros.

In any case, the worst was still ahead for Alonso. When he went through the pits to serve the penalty, during his second pit stop, the mechanics' lack of understanding kept him detained for 25.8 seconds.. By then, the low fuel warning on his steering wheel was activated again.. The same false alarm suffered two weeks ago in Monza.

Already behind Hamilton

To close Sunday, the man from Oviedo made a driving error that caused a yellow flag.. Such was the nonsense in the garage, that one of the Aston Martin engineers warned him of the slowdown that he himself had caused.. “I hope that soon we can forget and learn to do better in Japan,” he concluded before the microphones.

The truth is that Hamilton, after adding 16 points, has already snatched third place in the World Championship from Alonso (180-170). And this trend becomes even more pressing in the constructors' championship. Having lost third place to Ferrari, the immediate objective is to hold on against McLaren. Since the British GP, Aston Martin has barely scored 42 points in six races, while the Woking team has accumulated 110.