"I was frustrated in that moment"- Fernando Alonso on calling Lewis Hamilton an 'idiot'

Fernando Alonso said that his radio outburst, where he called Lewis Hamilton 'an idiot', was in the heat of the moment.

The Alpine driver started the race in P3 and had a strong start only to fall behind following the clash with Hamilton. Analysing the same, Alonso revealed disappointment at the recurrence of incidents when he has had a strong starting position.

The Spaniard said that he was also undone by an aggressive team strategy from Alpine.

“I’m just sad because when I start P2 or P3, always these things happen, and when I’m 12th or 13th, I have a clean race," said Alonso. "So I wanted to have a normal race. And unfortunately, we started already with that incident. Then we have a very aggressive strategy, stopping very early every time that I don’t think that it was the smartest one."

The Spaniard said that a top-five finish made it a good weekend for the team. He added that Hamilton expressed his regret at the incident, which is 'welcome'.

"But at the end, top five, it makes a good weekend for us," said the Spaniard. "With Charles’ penalty, fifth and seventh is a great result for the team. So it was a bad weekend for McLaren, and we maximised those points. As I said, when I start well, on the first row, the second row, all these things happens. For sure, I was frustrated in that moment. But he accepted his mistake, and it is welcome.”

Talking about the incident, Alonso said that Hamilton might have thought that the Spaniard wasn't on the inside, so he turned in. Talking to RaceFans.net, the Spaniard said:

“I think he thought that I was not there anymore. So I don’t think that it’s a mistake – it’s just in the heat of the moment you try to take the slipstream, brake late, turn in and sometimes you don’t measure the cars completely, where everybody is. But I don’t know. I normally take more care.”

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Clash with Lewis Hamilton was a racing incident - Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso said that things like the collission with Hamilton can happen at the start of races. He drew parallels with the Mercedes driver's clash with Nico Rosberg in 2014.

Terming the clash at Spa on Sunday as nothing more than a racing incident, the Spaniard said:

"It was a little bit of a mistake from his side to close the door like this. At turn five, we see many, many times here that it goes parallel. It happened the same to him (with) Rosberg a couple of years ago. So this time, it was the same thing.”

He added:

“I think it was a first lap incident. These things happen; in that corner especially there are a lot of things that are going on. People normally cut the corner in six and rejoin the track in seven. So it’s a tricky part of the circuit, for sure. It was a racing incident, nothing (more) to say.”

The Alpine driver secured a creditable top-five finish, a rarity for the midfield team this season.