"We’ve seen Fernando Alonso do that before in Nurburgring in 2003": Martin Brundle gives his take on the Aston Martin driver's tactics in Australia

F1 pundit Martin Brundle feels Fernando Alonso was in the wrong when it came to the incident involving George Russell in Australia. The Aston Martin driver and Mercedes man were embroiled in an intense battle for P6 in the race. Alonso was valiantly defending against George, who had a fresher set of tires on his car.

On the penultimate lap, however, George Russell lost control of his car in turn 6 and crashed out. On investigation by the stewards, it was found that Fernando Alonso had braked 100m earlier which led to the Mercedes driver losing control. As a result, the Aston Martin driver was handed a 20-second time penalty.

Looking back at the incident in his post-race column on Sky Sports, Martin Brundle said:

"Alonso claimed on the radio that he’d a throttle issue of some kind which is why he was slower than normal on the T6 corner. Russell was obviously pushing hard to be in range for a double dose of DRS assistance down the next two straights, and you never head into a corner making a speed reduction just in case the driver ahead has, or creates, an unexpected deceleration. You’re not a racing driver if you do."

He added:

“Alonso popped his saintly halo on and went to see the Race Stewards, explaining how he intended to approach Turn Six differently for a better exit speed which included decelerating 100 metres earlier, brushing the brake, and even a downshift."

Referring to a somewhat similar incident in 2003 involving Fernando Alonso where David Coulthard had complained about the Spaniard's tactics, Brundle said:

"This is what caught Russell out. We’ve seen Alonso do that before in Nurburgring in 2003 against David Coulthard, and he had exactly the same playbook. Except this time, it caused a huge amount of costly damage for a team who could well be on his wish list.”

Fernando Alonso shares his thoughts on social media

Fernando Alonso shared his point of view on social media after he was given a penalty. The Spaniard said that for drivers, manipulating racing lines and changing approaches on a track is all part of the sport.

Alonso also claimed no driver drives two laps in the same manner, while expressing surprise at the penalty. In a post on his X (formerly Twitter) account, he wrote:

"In F1, with over 20 years of experience, with epic duels like Imola 2005/2006/ Brazil 2023, changing racing lines, sacrificing entry speed to have good exits from corners is part of the art of motorsport. We never drive at 100% every race lap and every corner, we save fuel, tires, brakes, so being responsible for not making every lap the same is a bit surprising."

Fernando Alonso dropped two positions as a result of the penalty and hence would be classified in P8 at the end of the race.