Fernando Alonso was left ruing yet more reliability struggles after his second consecutive non-finish of the season in Singapore last weekend.
The Spaniard had put in a fine qualifying display to start the race fifth, but he was passed by both Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly at the start of the race.
He managed to take sixth back off the Frenchman, and he was keeping Max Verstappen at bay as the Red Bull driver tried to make his way through having started eighth.
However, the double world champion’s race ended abruptly when he lost power at Turn 10, and that put pay to his chances of another solid points finish.
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Team-mate, Esteban Ocon, had been eliminated in Q1 on Saturday, and in truth, was showing few signs of climbing back up into the points.
The 26-year-old might have been able to take advantage of some of the shenanigans happening out front though, but those possibilities were snatched away when he too experienced an engine blowout.
For Alonso, this is his fourth reliability-related retirement of the season, and the sixth time issues with the Renault power unit have affected his race.
The 41-year-old would have been a lot better off in the championship standings had it not been for constant misfortune in the back of his Alpine.
“Again eight or 10 points are gone and there were already about 50 points lost this year, so there are already about 60, which is unacceptable,” Alonso told DAZN.
“I am very upset because there had been a good performance in this race on my part throughout the weekend.”
“Yes, it was the two [Alpine] cars, but one was behind and out of the points, and it was not as serious as in my case for the points.”
Norris finished fourth ahead of McLaren team-mate, Daniel Ricciardo, at Marina Bay, and the points swing took the British side back ahead of Alpine and into fourth in the Constructors’ Standings.
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Alonso reckons he might even have challenged Sir Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in the Drivers’ Championship but for the loss of points this season.
“This year, this changes everything. If you gave me 60 more points in the standings and reduced those of the rest – because they are points that the others would not have added – my championship would seem much better, even compared to Mercedes,” he added.
Alonso remains ninth in the 2022 championship having scored points 11 times this year.