Lewis Hamilton gave Fernando Alonso 'a little bit of a surprise': "I didn't like it"

Fernando Alonso had a nice little battle with Lewis Hamilton in Bahrain and after the race admitted that while the battle was fun, the Briton did surprise him in some places. The Spaniard lost two positions at the start of the race to both the Mercedes drivers because of contact with teammate Lance Stroll.

During the race, Fernando Alonso picked his way through both the Mercedes drivers one by one to secure a podium position in the end. Speaking about the battle he had with Lewis Hamilton, the Spaniard revealed that it's always great to battle against a great of the sport and he had a lot of fun doing that. He said:

“It was great, a lot of respect between us. It’s never the same when you fight against Lewis, one of the legends of our sport, and you know he can do something unexpected and use his talent. He got me in Turn Four, I was in front of him but he managed to pass me there. That was a little bit of a surprise and I didn’t like it so I tried in another place and it worked, and I had more pace so I could pull away.”

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Fernando Alonso reveals reason behind non-DRS overtakes

Fernando Alonso revealed during the post-race press conference that the Aston Martin struggled for pace on the straight line and hence had to pull off overtakes at different parts of the track and not with the DRS aid. He said:

"I think we were not very fast on the straight, So you normally pass into Turn 1 or into Turn 4. And I think I passed Lewis into Turn 10 and Carlos into Turn 11. So not the normal places, because we could not match their straight-line speed."

He added:

"We had to make some moves in the corners before Turn 10 and Turn 11 and change trajectory, and then get the overtake done, I think to Lewis was more playing a surprise move there, because no one overtakes into Turn 10, let’s say. And then with Carlos, it was close into Turn 10 again, he closed the door, and then I have a better exit into Turn 11. But, yeah, we need to see that because obviously, we will love to pass just on the main straight like everyone does.”

Fernando Alonso is now third in the championship after the first race of the season in what is his best start to the season since 2013.