Ex-Formula 1 driver turned pundit Martin Brundle was quick to describe a mistake made by Fernando Alonso as “clumsy”, after the Spaniard spun in the closing stages of Q1 at the Mexican Grand Prix.
Alonso had just started his final hot lap in Q1 when it was suddenly ended by a spin, on the exit of the third corner.
The two-time World Champion was simply too greedy and tried to get on the throttle far too early, resulting in him facing the wrong direction.
This brought out a yellow flag which impacted almost every single driver, as they were forced to back out of their lap in the first sector.
Want to work in Formula 1? Browse the latest F1 job vacancies
An exception was Lance Stroll, who was ahead of Alonso on the circuit.
Stroll, therefore, had a great opportunity to try and get out of the bottom five and into Q2, something he failed to do for the fifth Grand Prix in succession.
Alonso’s spin didn’t actually compromise him, as the 42-year-old was already safely through to the second part of qualifying.
Nevertheless, it was an uncharacteristic mistake by the veteran, something Brundle was quick to criticise him for.
“Yeah, you’ve got to get past the green flag though,” Brundle said whilst commentating on Sky Sports F1.
“It was quite a clumsy little spin from Fernando Alonso, I must say.”
Commentator David Croft added: “Not the sort of spin you would expect from a driver in his 374th Grand Prix.”
Brundle replied to Croft’s comment by identifying that Alonso was too greedy with the throttle.
“Indeed, he put too much throttle on like that in the corner,” Brundle identified.
READ: ‘I did warn you’: Kevin Magnussen’s race engineer savagely snaps back
Once facing the right way again, Alonso went onto be eliminated in Q2, as he only managed to set the 13th quickest time.
It means he has a tremendous amount of work to do in the race on Sunday to try and score some points, and even attempt to get back ahead of McLaren in the battle for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Stroll’s situation is significantly worse though, as he’ll start from the pit-lane on his birthday following several changes to his AMR23.