Alonso: When I pushed, then Hamilton didn’t want to

A criticised Fernando Alonso turned the tables, saying Lewis Hamilton had ended up slowing down Esteban Ocon in Monaco, costing the Frenchman points.

With Alonso holding P7 in Monaco, Hamilton behind in the Mercedes was showing superior pace as he harried Alonso for multiple laps, Alpine telling Alonso to manage his tyres and keep Hamilton behind around this slow, tight circuit.

All the while McLaren’s Lando Norris disappeared up the road ahead, leaving a frustrated queue of traffic behind, headed by Hamilton who was not best pleased.

Hamilton’s Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff described it as “Formula 2” pace.

Alonso hit back though, explaining tyre concerns had forced him to drop the pace, so when he was told his team-mate Ocon was carrying a five-second penalty for earlier contact with Hamilton, he stepped up the pace to try to aid his team-mate.

At that point though, Alonso said Hamilton had no interest in doing the same, ultimately costing Ocon a top-10 finish as he dropped out of the points from P9 when that penalty was applied.

Fernando Alonso holding the field #MonacoGP pic.twitter.com/PtUVIX3hiw

— BWT AIpine F1 updates (@startonpole) May 29, 2022

“We had to do a lot of tyre management,” said Alonso as he explained his poor pace on that final stint.

“We had some concerns that the yellow tyres (medium) could grain a lot on our car, and the first 10 or 15 laps I took care of the tyres a lot.

“After that I pushed again when they told me Esteban had to make a five-second gap, but at that point Hamilton didn’t want to push, hold Esteban at the back – yeah, disappointing.”

It certainly was a Monaco Grand Prix featuring many plot twists with variable, heavy rain, red flags, multiple restarts and a big shunt for Mick