Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll lamented their poor luck in Imola, with neither driver converting top ten starts into points.
Both drivers made Q3 for the first time in 2025. Alonso qualified a stellar fifth, his best start in 2025, while Stroll started eighth on Saturday in Imola. Aston Martin rolled the dice and sent both drivers out on mediums in Q2 and Q3, garnering praise.
During the Imola race, however, both Alonso and Stroll pitted earlier, emerging into traffic after their stops. However, they lost out to Leclerc in the pit stops. A fiery Alonso radioed to his team, calling himself the “unluckiest driver in the world”.
“I don’t know. I think today. The whole season has been incredible, you know, if I look back,” a disconsolate Alonso expressed after the Imola outing.
“In Australia, I felt strong. My brakes were on fire when I was P11 at the start. Then there were three cars disqualified back then (in China),” Alonso continued.
“In Miami, we didn’t stop for dry tyres (in the sprint). Today, we finally have a strong car to score points on merit for the first time. And then there was the virtual safety car,” Alonso concluded, lamenting the bad luck leaving him scoreless.
With no points after the sixth round, this marked Alonso’s worst start to an F1 season. Alonso had failed to score in the first six weekends of 2015 as well, during his McLaren days.
Wrongly timed safety cars cost Alonso and Stroll in Imola
Alonso and Stroll were running their hard tyre stints when the virtual safety car was called out. Both drivers stopped early on in the race, swapping for fresh hards.
This brief stoppage allowed several drivers ahead to gain a free pit stop. While this promoted Alonso and Stroll up to eighth and ninth, they were no match for those on fresh tyres.
“We were okay, I think, to secure P6, P7 today with both cars. And then the virtual safety car (obviously) gave the opportunity to stop for free for the people who didn’t at that point.
“And they leave the pits just in front of us already with newer tyres and the race was over,” Alonso expressed, reflecting on how much the VSC interval cost both drivers.
Both drivers were 12th and 13th at the safety car intervention on lap 48 to retrieve Kimi Antonelli’s stricken Mercedes. While several drivers pit once again, neither Alonso nor Stroll had fresh tyres left.
Both drivers instead switched on to a set of used mediums, rejoining 14th and 15th respectively. Alonso utilised the softer step compound to make up places towards the end. A series of overtakes helped him finish 11th, just missing out on the points.
“It’s difficult to really make decisions at that time. Even at the end, I think the car was super strong because in nine laps, I overtook three cars. Nico (Hulkenberg), (Liam) Lawson, (Pierre) Gasly. I mean, our normal midfield group were very slow compared to us today, which is a very good sign for us, but with no points.”
Yeah, it doesn’t change for us, you know (SC or VSC). It was just the wrong time, you know, the wrong moment for us and at the wrong place,” Alonso expressed, summing up the race.
Imola upgrades a positive sign for both Alonso and Stroll
Despite failing to score, both Alonso and Stroll underscored the importance of the upgrades Aston Martin brought to Imola.
Both drivers managed to qualify fifth and eighth for the race. Meanwhile, Alonso had managed to keep up with the quicker cars of George Russell and Lando Norris ahead.
The Spaniard expressed his delight on the early stages of the race, calling it a “pinch me” moment.
“Yeah, I mean, the car was very strong today. We started strong, and then I could follow Norris and Russell. Actually, Russell was a little bit slower than both of us. I had to pinch myself. But I was in the front part of the field, and that was competitive,” Alonso expressed.
Teammate Stroll, who finished 15th, cautioned against an early judgement on the upgrades. “We’ll see next week. Very different kind of track. So we’ll see if we can continue the form,” the Canadian said.
