Alonso Hobbling His McLaren To The Pits Is The Heroic Sight Your Monday Needs

Once again, the weird and wonderful Baku Street circuit delivered an absolute cracker of a Grand Prix. In a race that saw an epic Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen tussle which ended in disaster, a heart-breaking late puncture for Valtteri Bottas and Romain Grosjean’s bizarre safety car crash, it’s hard to pick one defining moment. For me though, Fernando Alonso’s amazing display of determination just about swings it.

A first lap entanglement with Nico Hulkenberg and Sergey Sirotkin at Turn 3 left Alonso with a double puncture (click here to see the incident itself), leading pretty much everyone to assume he was going to park the car. But no - he dragged his stricken, barely controllable McLaren back to the pits to receive a fresh set of boots and a new wing. It was a struggle for the pit crew to jack up the battered car in the first place.

Despite receiving significant floor damage, Alonso not only managed to complete the whole race distance - he made his way through the pack and finished a heroic seventh.
Speaking about the incredible achievement, he said:

“I’m happy with the points. It was probably one of the best races that I’ve done in a long time, or the best race of my life. I reached the pit lane thanks to a miracle. I didn’t have two wheels or front wing or floor or anything.”

The race was won by Lewis Hamilton, who was running third in the latter stages of the race, only to pass a wide-running Sebastian Vettel to take second before inheriting the lead after his teammate’s puncture. Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez completed the podium.

What was you favourite moment of this mad GP?