Fernando Alonso details “painful” F1 Sao Paulo GP: “This bouncing is not normal”

Fernando Alonso has explained why he raced through the pain barrier to finish the F1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Alonso finished a lowly 14th at Interlagos as Aston Martin endured a miserable weekend.

Aston Martin were in a race against time to get both of their cars ready for Sunday’s grand prix after Alonso and Lance Stroll crashed out in qualifying.

Stroll failed to make the start of the race after beaching his Aston Martin during the formation lap.

Alonso had a difficult race as he split the two Saubers on track.

Over team radio, Alonso voiced that he would “finish for the race for the mechanics”.

“I will finish the race for the mechanics,” he said to his race engineer. “They did a very good job today. But my back is hurting, man. This bouncing is not normal.”

Reflecting on his race, Alonso said as quoted by Autosport: “There was a lot of bouncing, a lot of porpoising in the second half of the race.

“I don't know why, but it was a tough race. We were out of the points.

“I think in any other circumstances, probably I would have stopped. But the mechanics did an incredible job before the race to put the car ready on the grid, so I had to finish it for them.

“It was painful, for sure. The lead-up to this race, it was a lot of preparation from my side, a lot of checks, a lot of work, a lot of physio and doctors in order to come here in Brazil,” he said.

“So it was a lot of effort from everybody: the same effort as the mechanics put today.

“It was not comfortable in the car. But there are people worse than me, also in Valencia, we have these terrible images. And people struggling. So I had to struggle a couple of laps for everybody.”