Fernando Alonso did not have any complaints about Lando Norris’ defending at the Dutch Grand Prix last weekend.
The Spaniard was involved in an entertaining battle with the McLaren driver as they disputed seventh place in the Netherlands, with Alonso eventually coming out on top.
The double world champion initially started in 13th following a disappointing qualifying, but he climbed into the top 10 by passing both AlphaTauris, and taking advantage of a slow stop for Haas’ Mick Schumacher.
Team-mate Esteban Ocon, who himself qualified 12th, was left out on track while Alonso was brought in during a Virtual Safety Car, and the Frenchman cost Norris time as the Briton started to fall back into the clutches of the other Alpine.
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Eventually, Alonso managed to pass Norris during the full Safety Car period, with his Alpine crew getting him out in front.
While the French side were working their magic, Ferrari were continuing to inadvertently ruin Carlos Sainz afternoon, releasing the Spaniard into the path of Alonso, and earning him a five-second penalty.
Norris was unable to pass Alonso after the restart, and both of them took advantage of Sainz’s penalty to climb up a position.
During the eventful afternoon, the pair got close on track at Turn One, and Alonso almost took to the gravel on the exit as he tried a move round the outside.
Norris held his line and kept the position fairly in the eyes of the stewards, and Alonso, after finishing sixth, did not see anything wrong with the 22-year-old’s defending.
“It was okay, the only problem with this car is that when you are on the exit kerbs you damage the car,” he said.
“I think it happened to Sergio Perez at the end with Carlos and I got just lucky so this rule is always very strange as it is now.
“If it was a wall there maybe you treat differently the car outside when it’s just the kerb, we all push to the outside so it’s what it is but it was fine.”
The 41-year-old then got caught up with Sergio Perez towards the end as he was trying to take fifth away from the Mexican, who had been passed by the luckless Sainz on the restart.
Once again, he did not seem to have any problems with it.
“And regarding the incident with Perez, I don’t know, he risked a lot for no reason probably,” explained Alonso.
“And apparently, I spoke with him and he the damaged the floor a little bit, it was a lot of risk going on there.
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“I was just concentrating on the cars behind because obviously the Ferrari and Red Bull were not my fight.”
Ocon came home ninth behind the penalised Sainz, while the other McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo finished all the way down in 17th.
Alpine now lead McLaren by 24 points in the battle for fourth in the championship.