Chicane wrote: ↑17 Sep 2018, 14:02
1] Fernando was not pressured by any car behind. He was not defending from anyone. He was comfortably ahead of the Renaults and had enough pace in reserve which he showed by posting the fastest lap at one point and Alonso in Mclaren was the only midfield car to finish on the lead lap.
2] Just being kinder on the tire you cannot do well.
3] Cornering ability? That is such a loose term. What type of corners? low speed, medium or high speed?
4] Alonso was able to cut the gap to Bottas train by 10 seconds.
5] According to Mclaren the car has an aerodynamic issue which cannot be fixed this year. The car performs on par with their fellow midfield rivals, may be even better, in maximum downforce configuration. In Singapore without a responsive front end you simply cannot post competitive lap times. Mclaren have struggled in traction zones this season but they seem to have found a way to minimize that by setting up the car in a different way in Singapore?
Get the facts straight :/
Until lap 15 he was behind Grojan-train. 10 sec behind Perez. Then Grojan and Perez and all who started on Hypersoft had to pit and Alonso was in free air - running 7th without any overtaking.
After that he made pit 2-3 laps after Sainz, and again was in free air.
Sainz never tried to overtake, so Alonso was able to save his tyres and push when push was needed.
Perfect choice of tyres, pit time, combined with execution and some luck.
This gives some hope for 2019 - but nothing more so far.