IndyCar – Alonso goes “into” Indy 500 mode

At the end of a weekend full of ups and downs, Fernando Alonso finally saw the checkered flag in Catalonia for his national Grand Prix. If the Spaniard of McLaren had started his three Catalan days with a new disappointment, with the breakdown of the Honda Power Unit in EL1, the double world champion can be satisfied in a sense with having crossed the finish line yesterday, outside of the points however.

Seventh on the starting grid after almost heroic qualifying, the former driver Renault saw his race partly ruined by a passage into the gravel trap at the second turn. “The race did not go as planned, underlines Alonso.

We were a little unlucky with contact at turn 2 with Felipe Massa and we were stuck behind Daniil Kvyat for too many laps in the middle of the race. But even without that, to be honest, I think we didn't have the race pace to be in the points today.

I'm a little disappointed, but at least we finished the race, and I hope that's the first sign of progress in reliability. We now have to prepare for the next Grand Prix. »

Head to Indianapolis

As soon as the Spanish Grand Prix finished, Alonso, surrounded by Zak Brown, executive director of McLaren, and Eric Boullier, competition director of the Woking structure, headed to the West and the United States to present this Monday at the first tests of the 500 miles of Indianapolis.

On our way @ZBrownCEO @alo_oficial @IndyCar @FollowAndretti @McLarenIndy pic.twitter.com/Tr84W5gpHn

— Eric Boullier (@eboullier) 14th May 2017

The Spaniard now says he is entirely dedicated to this historic commitment to the legendary event, which will be contested on May 28. “At 12:00 p.m. I will be in the car for the first practice session, recalls Alonso. So I have fourteen hours of rest, nine of which will be spent on the plane, so we have to get into Indy mode now, and for the next two weeks I will focus on that. »

Discover the full report and analysis of the Spanish Grand Prix, produced by our special correspondents in Catalonia, in issue 2114 of AUTOhebdo, available this evening in digital version, and this Wednesday on newsstands.