Fernando Alonso has admitted he tried to take away Lewis Hamilton’s DRS during his “brake test” at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, in similar scenes to the famous 2013 Canadian GP battle.
As Alonso left the pits for Aston Martin on lap 37, he slowed just before Turn 5 as Hamilton caught up, but the Mercedes fell behind the DRS detection line.
Hamilton overtook Turn 6 before Alonso overtook again a lap later to take seventh place, while Hamilton finished ninth at the finish, with Hamilton third in the Drivers’ Championship and Alonso fourth. It is Alonso’s highest finish since second place behind Sebastian Vettel in 2013.
That year, Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton shared a podium in the Canadian Grand Prix only one of three times, and the then-Ferrari driver engaged in a game of DRS chicken with Hamilton in Montreal.
Alonso pointed this out when asked about the “brake test” – making it clear that he had emerged victorious both times with his 2007 McLaren team-mate.
Alonso defends brake test
“Lewis is very smart and understands the sport really well and has a lot of experience, but I have more,” Alonso told the media RacingNews365, with his 377 Grand Prix starts to Hamilton’s 332.
“We did the same thing in Canada, I think in 2012 (actually 2013). [12] Years after that episode, we try to give the DRS to the other guy by breaking into Turn 5, but in both cases I won.”
Hamilton, for his part, was less impressed with his old sparring partner.
“We were going full throttle 300, 400 meters into the corner and going 180 miles per hour when the guy in front of me suddenly slowed down dramatically.”
As for his race, Alonso felt the AMR23 was only good enough for seventh place, citing a battle with Yuki Tsunoda for that spot.
“On lap 16 we made the first stop and from then on we knew the race was going to be long,” he said.
“The pace was only enough for seventh or eighth place and we narrowly beat AlphaTauri, so that’s not enough.”
“Gamer. Introvert. Problem solver. Creator. Thinker. Lifelong food evangelist. Alcohol advocate.”