• Monaco Grand Prix

Conservative Alonso was focused on championship

Fernando Alonso lost out to Jenson Button, Adrian Sutil and Sergio Perez on track © Sutton Images

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• Race:
• Monaco Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso

• Teams:
• Ferrari

Fernando Alonso said Ferrari was lacking pace in the Monaco Grand Prix and that he wasn't overly robust during the race due to his championship position.

Having started from sixth place, Alonso dropped back through the field during the race and eventually finished seventh after Sergio Perez retired and Kimi Raikkonen suffered a puncture. Having been unable to match the pace of the leaders, Alonso admitted there were some problems with the car but that generally Ferrari had not been quick enough.

"The main problem was the pace, we didn't have the pace," Alonso said. "Normally on Sunday we pick up the pace, this time we didn't, and as part of that yes we did have different problems. The team informed me that we had a plastic bag on the front wing for ten laps which was taking aero performance from the front part. Then we had a piece of Sergio's front wing underneath on the floor and we lost around 30 or 40 points of aero performance, and then it was off for the last three laps so it was some up and down in the performance of the car. But the first 30 laps until the red flag we didn't have any problem and we were too slow."

With Perez, Adrian Sutil and Jenson Button all passing Alonso on track, he said he was worried about being caught in an incident with a driver with little to lose.

"Obviously it was disappointing every time they passed, but here there is not room to overtake so if someone has started the manoeuvre if you do the normal corner you will crash. If you are lucky or not it's a different thing. So for sure when you fight for these positions with people that have two or three points in the championship they risk it. I did the same in 2008, 2009, I was risking it at the start and trying to overtake in strange positions on the track. Sometimes it worked, but if you broke your front wing nothing happened because you don't lose anything.

"We're fighting for the championship so if you look in the mirror and someone tries to overtake us at Loews or the chicane, if we turn, we crash. We don't know if we're lucky or not, so that was not good. Why did we find ourselves in that position? Because we didn't have the pace today and we didn't have the pace in qualifying especially."

Having given up a place to Perez on track, Alonso said he wasn't concerned if the move was fair or unfair, adding Perez only has to keep his own team happy.

"He was lucky this year with two or three incidents. In Bahrain nearly contact with Jenson, with me I was off the track to avoid contact, here I cut the chicane to avoid contact again, Kimi was not lucky because he didn't avoid the contact, and at the end he retired. But only McLaren has to be happy with him, the others we just have to do our work."

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