Fernando Alonso reveals cause of rare jump start error

Fernando Alonso has revealed what caused him to jump the start in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, resulting in a five-second time penalty. 

The two-time F1 champion started in 11th but clearly released his clutch too early, as did Oscar Piastri directly ahead. 

Piastri jumped the start sooner than Alonso, with the Aston Martin driver's error caused simply by reacting to the Australian.

Nevertheless, Alonso was penalised and finished 15th, although he does not believe jumping the start impacted his finishing position.

"Yeah, in those moments, every movement that is happening in front of you, obviously, sometimes you react," Alonso told select media, including RacingNews365. 

"And, unfortunately, I reacted to Oscar. I don't think that it changed my race at all. We had very slow pace, and the final position, I think, is exactly the same [as without the penalty]."

Both Alonso and team-mate Lance Stroll struggled for outright pace at the Baku City Circuit, with the latter finishing 17th.

"There were very few opportunities in the race and points were out of reach," said Mike Krack, Aston Martin chief trackside officer.

"The majority of cars stopped only once – as we did – with the medium tyres performing especially well with low degradation. That limited the strategy options and made for quite a straightforward race.

"Both drivers pushed hard, but ultimately we were missing outright pace. We will head back to Silverstone, regroup and come back stronger in Singapore."