Alonso: We had to give it a try

Fernando Alonso chose to make only one stop, putting on the soft tires on the 19th lap. If this strategy worked for Romain Grosjean (Lotus) who finished second by stopping two laps after the Asturian, the F2012 was unable to maintain his tires as the Frenchman's E20 did and the double world champion fell to fifth place in the final laps of the event, even being passed by Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) who had chosen to late make a second stop seven laps from the checkered flag. The Spaniard leaves Montreal two points behind Lewis Hamilton in the Championship but still considers to have carried out a great operation on a circuit where the team of Woking has a habit of shining.

“I feel good, we tried to win this race”, comments the pilot Ferrari which slips into second place in the Championship. “Hamilton stopped with 18 laps to go and we had the choice of staying on track in front of Sebastian (Vettel) or stopping with him. I would have returned to the track in fourth place, I would have finished in this position thanks to Grosjean's degradation and it would have seemed like a big mistake. We made the decision to try to win this race and it didn't work not because of the strategy but because of the degradation of the tires. We stopped at the same time as Grosjean and he finished second with the same times as Hamilton. The problem is that Grosjean was able to do 55 laps on his tires and ours only lasted 45 laps. We know that Canada is a circuit for McLaren. They have often won here and Hamilton has the most poles there. We weren't thinking about winning or second place when we arrived here, we were more hoping for a third or fourth place. We leave with ten points, it's perfect. »

Discover the analysis of the Canadian Grand Prix in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version for iPad, PC and Mac, and from Wednesday on newsstands.