Alonso found Mexico City ‘difficult’ as Stroll ‘struggled’ in tricky race for Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso did not make the chequered flag in Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix, the Spanish racer forced to retire midway through with a brake issue. With Lance Stroll also unable to score, it has left Aston Martin in a precarious position in the Championship with four races to go.

The team are holding onto seventh place behind Racing Bulls at the moment, but with Haas scoring big points courtesy of Ollie Bearman’s fourth place finish, they are now just seven points behind Aston Martin as the season heads towards its conclusion.

And as if that wasn’t enough, there are reliability concerns to address as well, with Alonso retiring in the race due to a brake issue. That could be track specific, with the high altitude in Mexico City often leading to overheating issues with the brakes especially. But even before the issue arose, Alonso looked to be struggling for pace.

“It was a difficult race for me, and we've struggled for pace all weekend. We had a good start but then there was some contact which caused minor damage to the front wing,” he explained after his retirement ended a run of two races in the top 10.

“I was also surprised to see a few cars cutting the corner at the start, jumping ahead of us and not getting penalties. Unfortunately, about halfway through the race we had to retire the car as a precaution. Hopefully we can have more luck in the future."

Brazil should be a happier hunting ground for Aston Martin, with that event also featuring a Sprint and so giving the team two chances to pick up points.

As for Lance Stroll, he opted for the soft tyres at the start which proved the preferential strategy. But unfortunately for the Canadian, he spun on the opening lap after seemingly getting wide onto the kerbs.

That dropped him down the order, before eventually recovering to finish P14.

"We always had realistic expectations coming to Mexico and historically this has been a track where we have struggled in the past so starting from P19 today was never going to be easy,” said Stroll after the race.

“I had a spin during the first lap as the track was dirty on the outside. A strong first stint on the softs and some good moves by the team, but P14 was the maximum that was in it for us today."