Alonso says his brake failure could have ‘taken four or five cars out’ · RaceFans

Fernando Alonso said he was lucky the brake failure which put him out of the race happened at a quick corner and not a slow one.

The Aston Martin driver retired in the pits after the problem struck. He revealed he problem struck as he approached the first corner.

“The brakes apparently were very hot since the beginning of the race,” he told the official F1 channel. “Then by lap three or lap four I went on the brakes in turn one and the pedal went just to the bottom of the chassis. That was super-scary.”

Turn one is one of the quickest corners on the track. Drivers only have to decelerate a little, which meant Alonso was able to bring the car under control.

“Lucky turn one is just a corner that you just downshift and go into the corner,” he said. “If that happens in turn 14 or whatever I think it could be a massive crash because I will take four or five cars in front of me out of the race.

“So, an unlucky situation, I think we were lucky today to not hit any car in front of us or whatever and now let’s try to understand what happened and try to see the first chequered flag in Japan.”

Alonso remains yet to finish a grand prix this year after crashing out of the Australian Grand Prix a week ago. He said the car’s performance was “a little bit better than in Australia, I think, in race pace, yesterday in the sprint.”

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His team mate Lance Stroll finished 12th after running a long opening stint on the hard tyre compound. He said he thought a points finish might be possible before his final stint.

“I thought the race was coming to us after the first stint,” he said. “But just the other medium [tyre, there was] a lot of graining and then I think the whole race ended up just becoming a one-stop for everybody, so that was that.”

“I think we have a lot to work on, for sure, if we want to finish in the points comfortably going forward,” he added.