Fernando Alonso: "It has been a round Sunday"

"The last half hour has been a roller coaster of emotions"

"The penalty for Sainz is harsh, when your wheels are cold you won't crash into anyone"

MADRID, 2 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Spanish driver Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), third in the Australian Grand Prix, has assured that this Sunday has been "round" for the team, with him finishing on the podium ahead of his teammate, the Canadian Lance Stroll , and with Ferrari and Mercedes finishing with only one car, and that he has lived "a roller coaster of emotions in the last half hour."

"Reliability is being very good at the moment. After Lance's problem with the exhausts in the last race, it is very important to finish third and fourth today, because there are a lot of points for the team. Ferrari only had one car on the track, Mercedes too, with Russell's problem. A round Sunday," he said in statements to DAZN after the race.

All in a test at Albert Park with up to three red flags and in which the cars staged a restart with two laps to go and finished the last lap behind the safety car. "I thought we had the podium at the end, but the red flag was a bit surprising, because of the Haas that was at Turn 4," he said.

"Then the touch came and we were out of the points at one point, then they put us back in the points. It's been a roller coaster of emotions in the last half hour. We are very happy with the podium, the third in a row. No we were able to attack Hamilton, who drove a fantastic race in front of us. From behind we had a lot of pressure, we were in no man's land," he continued.

At the start, Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) ran over the Spaniard in the first corner and everything came to a stop again. "The red flag was not necessary because there was a car stopped at turn 4, that's what the 'safety cars' are for, to slow down the race a bit. In the end it was like a race lap. As in Silverstone, if there is an accident before passing the first sector, it turns back. It was unfair", he stressed.

In addition, he described Sainz's five-second penalty as "hard". "I didn't know who had touched me, then I saw that it was Carlos and that he had a penalty, surely hard. When you have cold wheels you won't crash into anyone," he said.

"When they bring out a red flag, which they do for safety, when you do a start again with all twenty cars going into the first corner after a formation lap behind the 'safety car', which is going very slow, in the end "That you think is more dangerous because something is going to happen again. We'll talk about it in the next race. I'm happy with the podium, but the last half hour was confusing," he concluded.