Fernando Alonso jokingly ribs Lewis Hamilton in unexpected F1 defence

Fernando Alonso has jokingly pointed to old F1 rival Lewis Hamilton's ailing Ferrari as evidence that overtaking is possible at the Singapore Grand Prix. 

Hamilton attempted a one-stopper strategy at Marina Bay after starting on the medium tyres before bailing on this strategy for softs on lap 18,  resulting in him running for 44 laps on a set of used softs.

The seven-time F1 champion decided to try to tough out the strategy when asked to pit by Ferrari under a VSC. On the ageing rubber, he dropped down the order from second under the VSC to sixth in the final results.

Between being passed by Kimi Antonelli on lap 54 and the chequered flag at the end of lap 62, Hamilton lost 28.615s to the Italian, at an average of 3.576s per lap as he came home a distant sixth. 

For this, Hamilton took responsibility, but given the overall lack of overtaking opportunities in the grand prix, Alonso, who finished 15th for Aston Martin, defended the track, and used his own 2010 victory as proof, before aiming a prod at his old rival.

"On this track, I don't think there is much we can do," Alonso explained to media, including RacingNews365, when asked if there were any changes which could be made to Marina Bay. 

"At street circuits, normally qualifying means 90% of the race, and it has been like that in Formula 1 from the times of [Ayrton] Senna, [Alain] Prost, and Michael [Schumacher].

"Myself, here in 2010, I had an eight-tenths deficit to the Red Bull, and made it on pole and then kept Sebastian behind for 62 laps, so this is the nature of the track.

"So I don't think there is much we can do, but there were still some overtakes."

He then added: "I was watching the screens, and I saw Hamilton losing a lot of places, so there were a couple of places to be overtaken."

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Alonso's Singapore Grand Prix

As for Aston Martin's weekend, the AMR26 machine struggled with the drivability of its Honda engine throughout, with Alonso even taking a new unit for a change after qualifying after detecting an issue with the turbo.

Reflecting, he felt the team had learned the "hard way" that the twin issues were far from being solved completely. 

"There is something on the power unit which was not performing as it should, and we need to understand why," Alonso added.

"Obviously there are a couple of tough races coming, but Mexico will be the next [good] one with very slow speed corners, and Las Vegas and other street circuits, so we need to get on top of the issues of drivability and turbo lag.

"There are a couple of things which are costing us lap time, and we discovered that the hard way this weekend."