'Not my problem' – Fernando Alonso reacts to Lewis Hamilton after Monaco GP

Fernando Alonso has hit back at claims he deliberately held up Sir Lewis Hamilton during Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix.

Alonso finished the race in seventh place, but in the closing stages the Alpine driver was notably way off the pace of the cars ahead, with sixth place Lando Norris crossing the line over 34 seconds ahead of the Spaniard.

Hamilton came home eighth, unable to pass Alonso in his quicker Mercedes thanks to the tight and twisty nature of the Monaco street circuit.

During the race, Hamilton repeatedly moaned that Alonso was driving too slowly, and it was believed that the lead Alpine was doing so to help his teammate Esteban Ocon catch-up and pass Hamilton.

Ocon had earlier been given a five-second penalty for hitting Hamilton and needed to get clear of cars behind in order to finish in the points.

But after the race, Alonso rebuffed these claims, saying that Hamilton’s issues were: ‘Not my problem.

‘In the last part of the race we knew that it was a bit optimistic with our car to do 33 laps with the yellows and I was doing a lot of tyre management.

‘Then, when they told me that Esteban Ocon had a five-second penalty, I started to open up a bit of a gap, but at that point Hamilton either didn’t want to push or he couldn’t go any faster. I know he was a bit angry.

‘It held Esteban back, so yeah, disappointing.’

Ocon remained behind Hamilton, and after his penalty was added, he dropped out of the top 10 and the points, finishing 12th.

Overall, the race was a chaotic affair, with a sudden downpour delaying the start by over an hour, before there was another lengthy stoppage due to Mick Schumacher crashing heavily into the barriers.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez took advantage of a Ferrari tactical blunder to win the race, with Carlos Sainz Jr. and Max Verstappen rounding off the podium.

‘It was a very tricky race, to be honest, very interesting I guess from the outside,’ Alonso added.

‘All kind of conditions, not raceable at the beginning, we went through rain, red flags and no visibility, then very poor grip, then intermediates, then dry tyres, then the crash.

‘We’ve been through everything, and it was a race where it was very easy to make a mistake.

‘All in all, a difficult afternoon to execute on the driving aspect but also the team strategy, so we are happy with seventh. They are good points.’

The result moves Alonso up to 13th in the drivers’ standings, with Alpine sixth in the constructors.

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