Fernando Alonso reveals genius behind ‘overtake of the month’ contender at Zandvoort

Henry Valantine 28 Aug 2023 4:00 PM

Fernando Alonso celebrates his podium at Zandvoort.

Fernando Alonso got the jump on several of his rivals at the start of the Dutch Grand Prix, and he revealed there was method behind what appeared a bold move at the start of the race.

While those in front took the racing line around the outside of the banked Turn 3 – a line which Alonso himself was the first to find to be quicker than hugging the inside back in 2021 – the Spaniard dived low and made up two places, putting himself into the podium positions.

A move on Lando Norris in the following lap put him second behind Max Verstappen on the road, and after a hectic race and a lot of reshuffling, that would be where Alonso would end proceedings for his first podium in two months.

Fernando Alonso reveals inspiration behind brave starting move

Alonso was able to get by both Alex Albon and George Russell with a darting low move to the inside of Turn 3 before getting on the power again, with the rain coming down and causing multiple unknowns for the drivers as they headed around Zandvoort on Sunday.

And when he saw the rain come, the Aston Martin driver remembered information he had gathered from earlier in the weekend about that particular line and held onto it for a moment when it might come in handy.

And he very much used it wisely, to a degree that he hopes to see it honoured with an award.

“It was FP1 or FP2, it was wet and in one of the out-laps I let a few cars go on the normal racing line and I found a lot of grip on the inside casually, by just letting people go,” Alonso explained to media including PlanetF1.com after the race.

“所以,我一直在我的脑海里,所有的时间,所有的星期end, in case it was wet. I was ready to try again and, to be honest, when we were on the grid, and the red lights were on for the start of the race, there were a lot of drops in the visor.

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“So, that’s the worst feeling you can have because you are ready to start the race on a slick tyre, and on your visor, you see that it’s raining.

“You have no idea of the grip that you will find in Turn 1 braking, or Turn 3. So, I thought everyone will be a little bit cautious in Turn 3 with the grip level, and also just outside Turn 3 there is paint in the Aramco, so you have to be a little bit cautious there.

“So I thought about the inside line, it could work and, yeah, we overtook those two cars. Definitely, that should be the overtake of the month, again. I hope.”