F1: Alonso Delighted As Second Keeps Title Battle On

Formula 1

F1: Alonso Delighted As Second Keeps Title Battle On

Fernando Alonso trails Sebastian Vettel by 10 points with two races left...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted November 04, 2012 Abu Dhabi (ARE)

Fernando Alonso remained second in the championship standings with his second-place finish in Abu Dhabi. (Photo: Getty Images)

Fernando Alonso was in a typically upbeat mood after an Abu Dhabi GP that saw him progress from his original qualifying position of seventh to finish second, right behind winner Kimi Raikkonen.

The Spaniard insisted that he wasn’t disappointed to have gained only three points on his title rival on a day when Sebastian Vettel faced such an uphill struggle and yet ultimately finished third.

“To be honest, we were concentrating on our race,” said Alonso. “Our simulations we had gave us the possibility to finish fifth or sixth, so we were not very optimistic with today’s race, and despite what Sebastian was doing in the race, we were taking eight, 10 points maximum in our simulations. So we concentrated on our race.

“He did a very good race, and he was able to use the performance in some of the parts of the race when he was in clean air, plus the safety cars that I think put the group all together. So at the end I think this is nothing we can do; we just need to concentrate on our race and if we finish in front of Sebastian in the next two races then maybe we have a chance. So that’s our concentration now.”

In the closing laps, Alonso pulled away from the Vettel/Jenson Button battle and put pressure on leader Raikkonen.

“There was no more concerns about the tires because obviously doing one stop you never know how the tires will finish the race,” Alonso said. “And also after the last safety car, we saw Sebastian with the soft, and the first three of us, we were with the prime, so we didn’t know how much a threat was Sebastian for fight until the last lap.

“So after they lost a little bit of time, Jenson and Sebastian, and we didn’t care anymore about the tires, I pushed 150 percent for eight laps and I tried to catch Kimi but it was never enough to be within one second for the DRS to be even closer. So at the end, we didn’t have the pace to win but fantastic race anyway.

“We didn’t have the pace this weekend in any practice, in qualifying seventh and ninth (teammate Felipe Massa’s qualifying spot) and then today we were fighting for a victory – surprising again. This is thanks to a perfect car for the race, a perfect start, perfect strategy, perfect pit stops, so everything perfect Sunday for us, maximizing what we have in hands.”

Alonso said that the latest update package had made a difference on his Ferrari.

“I think it helped, for sure, because when we tested it on Friday, they gave us some performance but we are talking very few hundredths of advantage that, for sure, when you have a gap to close that is a couple of tenths, when you bring hundredths and your opponents bring also some new parts, I think more or less you are in the same position,” Alonso said.

“So, we need to keep working, and in Maranello they work day and night very hard to bring new parts. Here in the track, mechanics work 24 hours and we are doing our maximum, and hopefully it will be enough.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.