Alonso laments ‘pure bad luck’ for Aston Martin in Imola despite upgrades being ‘a step forward’

Fernando Alonso was left to rue ‘pure bad luck’ in Imola after tumbling down the order from his fifth-placed start to finish the race in 11th, despite his Aston Martin upgrades making the car look competitive for the first time this season.

Those upgrades combined with the tactical astuteness to save an extra set of medium tyres for Qualifying saw both Aston Martins make Q3 for the first time this season. Alonso started fifth, and ran there in the early stages of the race.

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With Lance Stroll a few places behind, the team looked on for a double score – but after pitting early, their race unravelled when many got a cheap pit stop under the subsequent Virtual Safety Car.

Worse was to come, the late Safety Car gifting the opportunity for half the field to fit fresh tyres again, at a point when Aston martin had no realistic compounds left to use. That left the Spaniard to make a balanced judgement of how his day unfolded.

“It was just unlucky," Alonso said. "The car was super today, we followed the McLaren and [George] Russell at the beginning of the race, which was definitely a good surprise for us to be that competitive at the front of the field.

“And then I think we were okay to secure P6, P7 with both the cars and then the Virtual Safety Car gave the opportunity to everyone to stop and exit in front of us and our race was over. So extremely unlucky, the car was competitive, I had a good fight.

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“Even at the end I overtook three or four cars in nine laps. It’s something we are not used to this year, so definitely a step forward.”

The pace at the end of the race was especially impressive, given at that time Alonso was on old medium tyres. He rose to 11th, agonisingly close to a points finish that has eluded him so far this season.

The good news is that the Aston Martin upgrade package seems to have worked, making the team look more competitive than at any point this season, even with Alonso's team mate Stroll finishing back in 15th. He was unable to clear the traffic he dropped into after his first pit stop, but wants more data before making his own mind up about how potent the upgrade package was.

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“We’ll see next week at a different kind of track, so we’ll see if we can continue the form,” he concluded.

Aston Martin remain in seventh in the Teams' Standings, four points ahead of Racing Bulls.