Ferrari’s Fernando Fernando Alonso says Vitaly Petrov is not a threat – Formula 1
Two-times Formula 1 champion, Fernando Alonso, believes that Renault’s driver, Vitaly Petrov, is not a championship contender. Petrov, who was able to hold off Alonso for the entire race, finished on the podium for the first time in his career. Alonso said
that losing points and position to Petrov is no big deal.
Twice in a row, Petrov was in front of Alonso and gave Alonso a tough time in overtaking him. Last year in Abu Dhabi, Petrov was able to hold off Alonso the entire race which cost Alonso the championship title to Sebastian Vettel. After the race Alonso was
very annoyed with Petrov but soon realised that the track in Abu Dhabi was responsible and overtaking was not possible. In the Australian Grand Prix, Petrov was again in front but this time Alonso’s three pit-stops extended the gap while Petrov took only two
pit-stops.
Alonso explained that Petrov’s podium finish doesn’t count in the long run as he is not a championship contender. “To finish fourth, I lost points with [Lewis] Hamilton, I lost points with [Sebastian] Vettel, but the points with Petrov I am not so stressed,”
explained Alonso. The Spaniard further stated that he had a few problems with the grip of the Pirelli hard tyres which compromised a few seconds. Alonso cited the situation of the start of the race where Petrov pushed Jenson Button on the first turn. Button
avoided the crash with Petrov and pushed Alonso to the outside corner after which Alonso was in tenth place.
“For the journalists it is a very interesting race having Petrov and me, but I was looking in the mirror because I had a title contender behind me, and I was happy to have [Mark] Webber behind me,” said Alonso.
Alonso was right on Petrov’s tail in the last lap, had there been a few more laps, Alonso would have overtaken his fresh arch rival. Nevertheless, the Malaysian Grand Prix will start in a couple of weeks and Alonso’s first target will be to beat Petrov in
the Qualifiers to place himself where he chase to Vettel.
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