Alonso concerned by top speed vulnerability

In brief

Alonso fears “nothing I can do” to defend from rivals

Alonso says he expects to have a difficult time keeping rivals behind him during the Las Vegas Grand Prix due to their relatively low straightline speed. The Aston Martins of Alonso and team mate Lance Stroll were the slowest cars measured at the timing line on the pit straight during qualifying, which Alonso admitted made him concerned for the race.

“I think we’ve been the slowest car on the straight for 22 races, so that is not a surprise that on the longest straight of the championship we are struggling a little bit,” he said.

Asked if he was concerned he would be vulnerable during the grand prix from cars behind him, Alonso replied “100%. Nothing I can do.”

Hamilton’s first Mercedes fetches record price

The Mercedes W04 Lewis Hamilton drove to his first grand prix victory for the team at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2013 has set a new record for the highest fetching price for a modern F1 car at a public auction.

Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013 from McLaren and raced chassis number 04 in the first 17 rounds of the championship, including a single victory in that year’s race at the Hungaroring. Chassis 04 went for auction at RM Sotheby’s with an estimated price of between $10m-$15m, but was eventually sold for a total of $18.8m (£15.09m).

It is the only car raced by Mercedes since their return to Formula 1 as a manufacturer in 2010 not owned by the team, by team principal Toto Wolff or by Hamilton himself.

Albon reveals delta failure

Alexander Albon has revealed he struggled without a delta time available in the cockpit of his Williams during qualifying. He was one of six drivers who failed to adhere to the maximum lap time between the two Safety Car lines in the session, but all six were cleared of driving unnecessarily slowly.

“My delta time wasn’t working, so I didn’t [know],” he said. “Nowadays they are so strict on our [maximum] Safety Car line times and because it wasn’t working I was stressed because I didn’t want to get a penalty for no reason. So I was reliant on the radio to tell me whether I was going too quickly or not.”

Links

Motor racing links of interest:

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