"Who made the decision; who made that call" - Fernando Alonso on tractor incident at Japanese GP

Fernando Alonso questioned the presence of a tractor trackside at the Japanese GP on Sunday.

In 2014, at the same venue, Jules Bianchi crashed into the roadside recovery vehicle and lost his life. Eight years later, there could have been an encore, leaving many drivers fuming.

After the race, Alonso said that he could not see the tractor in the spray during the rain-marred race. The Spaniard reckons an inquiry needs to be made to find out why the truck was there following Carlos Sainz's crash and who was responsible for it. He said:

"I still don’t know where Carlos (Sainz) was. I didn’t see the tractor. There was no visibility. Behind the safety car, I could not see the tractor, I didn’t see Carlos, so obviously it was the low point of the race, and we need to understand that."

Alonso continued:

"It was a difficult afternoon for everyone. We are here to help the FIA, but after 2014 we agreed it would never happen again, and it happened, so we need to work together to make sure this is the last, last, last."

Alonso added:

"We need to understand why the tractor was there, who made the decision, who made that call, if they misunderstood something and whether the tractor was out without permission from the race director. So until we find the full explanation, which we will require, we cannot comment too much."

The Spaniard also extended his support to Pierre Gasly who was one of the last drivers on the scene and was furious to see the truck on the track. Alonso said:

"Totally supporting Pierre. We are in the car; we know the speed we are doing, and we know when we are in control. What we don’t expect is to see a tractor on the circuit, so that is nothing to blame Pierre."

Moments before the race was red-flagged, Gasly was racing at around 200 km/hr and came dangerously close to the recovery truck, which was on the track to extricate Sainz's crashed car.

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Fernando Alonso reflects on chaotic Japanese GP

Fernando Alonso reflected on a chaotic race in Japan where teams had mixed conditions to deal with. The driver finished P7 and was happy to help Alpine regain P4 in the championship from McLaren. He said:

"It was a fun but very chaotic race today, and I'm glad we managed to put on a show in the end for the fans. We scored some good points, and I think we could have scored even more. It was a difficult race to manage with the wet conditions, safety cars and the red flag. There were also couple of incidents, which I'm sure will be reviewed to improve for the future."

The Spaniard has 65 points, while his teammate Esteban Ocon has 78.