F1 legend Fernando Alonso was impressed by an overtake seen in NASCAR, describing it as something out of a “video game”. During the final lap of the race at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia, 29-year-old Ross Chastain, who was two points behind Denny Hamlin, accelerated his car along the track wall.
Chastain used speed to anchor his car between two drivers and climbed from 10th to fourth, cementing his championship spot in next week’s NASCAR playoffs. The daring move earned Chastain thunderous applause from the crowd and left two-time F1 world champion Alonso in awe.
The Spaniard’s response to a clip of the controversial move read: “This is the best of 2022 in motorsport! We’ve all done this in games with damage disabled. I never thought this could become a reality.”
However, not everyone was happy, as Kyle Larson, who finished the race in second place, was one of the biggest names to criticize the drift move. “Yeah, I’m a little, I don’t know, embarrassed that I did it because, to be honest, he was pretty embarrassing,” he said after the race.
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“I think it doesn’t look good for our sport. I don’t know what you’re thinking, you probably think it’s cool, but it was pretty embarrassing.” Alonso’s comments come after he was thrown into the air following a massive crash at the United States Grand Prix last month.
The 41-year-old went airborne after hitting the rear of Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and crashing into the barrier on the outside of the track. Despite the damage to his car, the Alpine driver miraculously continued to finish seventh, but was demoted to 15th after an appeal that saw him handed a 30-second penalty.
Haas appealed the inconsistent placement of black and orange flags and felt that Alonso should have been shown after damaging his car after colliding with Stroll. The stewards agreed that Alonso’s car was not safe and they imposed the most serious sanction, except for disqualification.
However, Alpine protested the decision to penalize Alonso, which was successful and the F1 veteran retained his P7 place at the Circuit of the Americas. However, he wasn’t so lucky this weekend in Mexico, as he dropped out of the race and stopped on the side of the track with six laps to go due to engine trouble after posting a solid points result. .
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Unable to hide her irritation, she waved her arms in frustration before putting her head in her hands at the side of the floor. “What an incredible season”, was Alonso’s radio message when his car began to suffer because he was asking for more and more points.
“Once again car 14 stops before the checkered flag,” Alonso said after retiring from the race. “So yeah, we lost now, I think it’s like 70 points. [this season] – the deficit makes no sense to talk about it again. We’ll see. Just two more races and then a new chapter.
“I think Austin and Mexico were the best races from my personal perspective in terms of pace, I was about 20 seconds or so ahead of the McLarens and my teammate. So yeah, I felt fast today. But like I said, car 14 is stopping again.”
Source: www.express.co.uk
