Alonso dissapointed on loosing win!

By role
October 13 2003

Spanish Driver Fernando Alonso finished the Japanese Grand Prix on lap 17 quite dissapointed. After his engine broke and he stepped out of the car he could not control his temper and he showed the frustration.

Alonso believes he could have won his second race at Suzuka and that the break of the engine made him loose one of his best chances:

"It's a big disappointment to retire; I was fighting for the victory, and we were probably going to make one less stop than Rubens. We have had a great season, but the opportunity was there to win at the last race, and it's not a nice feeling to lose it." He said.

Pat Symonds, Renault's Executive Director of Engineering, also agrees that Alonso had a great chance of challneging Barrichello for the victory:

"Fernando's early laps were extremely impressive, and he was able to hold on to Barrichello who we knew was on three stops. We slightly extended the second stint in order to give the possibility of converting to two stops, and beating the Ferrari this way. Unfortunately, an engine problem intervened and didn't allow us to reap the benefits of this." Said Symonds. "He started the race on three stops, but we designed the stop points in such a way that he could switch to two if the weather, or the way the race unfolded, dictated so. His speed immediately afterwards justified the decision and without a doubt, with one less stop to make than Rubens, we could have beaten him by a safe margin." He added.

The Spaniard put an impressive race on those 19 laps before the retirement. he had set the goal of overtaking both the Toyotas of Olivier Panis and Cristiano Da Matta at the start and he did so. He even tried to overtake Barrichello at the start but he could not do so.