Fernando Alonso wasn’t afraid to throw a few jabs both on and off the track at Lewis Hamilton after a thrilling battle at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Despite turning 40 just before the weekend in Budapest, the Spaniard once again proved he’s still as good as ever by holding off the seven-time world champion for over 10 laps despite Hamilton having much fresher tyres and a faster car.
Eventually, a small lock-up into Turn 1 gave the Mercedes driver the chance he needed to get through into Turn 2, but Hamilton was well aware he’d been in a fight after a few close calls.
“Fernando gave me hell out there,” he said post-race. “It was awesome racing, pretty on edge at least once but great racing.
“Looking back on it, it was amazing, it really, really was fantastic.
“I wish the cars could follow closer and I’m excited for what the cars are like next year. Hopefully, that eradicates a lot of that bad drafting that we have here.
“But yeah, it’s a really difficult circuit to overtake in general, and to follow particularly in that last sector but great, great wheel-to-wheel battles. It literally was wheel-to-wheel at least once and I don’t really have much more to say about it.
“When you’re racing against a two-time World Champion, he probably is one of the hardest drivers – but fair. I’d say today was a little bit over on the limit.”
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Alonso himself admits he was surprised by how he was able to fend off Hamilton for so long, but knew how important it was for his Alpine team.
“I thought honestly that I could not hold him for more than one or two laps, but in the last couple of corners, he seemed to struggle a little bit to follow me and it was enough to open a gap on the straight and defend,” he explained.
“I think he learned a couple of different lines in the last three corners after the 10 laps behind me because he was able to pass Carlos [Sainz] just in one lap, applying those new lines.
“The team didn’t tell me anything, but I knew that every lap I could hold him behind, that was gold for Esteban [Ocon]’s win.”
The former McLaren teammates did actually make very brief contact at one point on the approach to Turn 4, with Hamilton voicing his displeasure at the “dangerous” moves at high speed.
“Lewis always complains,” Alonso told Ziggo Sport in response. “I didn’t hear anything from the FIA so I guess it’s okay.”