As the grid was cleared before the start, Alonso’s car was left on the grid on its jacks with the tire blankets still attached while the team frantically tried to resolve a technical problem with the car.
But as the grid was led for another formation lap due to Zhou Guanyu’s engine stalling, buying the Alpine more time, Alonso was unable to start from the pit lane as his car failed to start.
A frustrated Alonso explained that his car completely stalled at the start, the root cause of which has yet to be diagnosed.
“Five minutes before the start we had a total blackout in the car and we couldn’t start it,” Alonso said when asked about the problem by Motorsport.com.
“We tried to start with an external battery but that didn’t work either, so there’s something bigger and let’s try to fix it for tomorrow.
“Because they didn’t line up on the grid, we tried to be ready, but it didn’t work out with the second battery either, so like I said, there’s something bigger.”
Alonso will start Sunday’s main race from the back row and feared his “weekend is over” because of how difficult it looked to get through the sprints.
“Yeah, it’s over. In general, the weekend is over, because as we saw there are trains of cars here and you can’t pass.
“It will be frustrating with the DRS trains and things like that. So we’ll try to be creative with the strategy and try to get lucky maybe with safety cars or something like that.
“So we’ll see, but I think it’s going to be a very, very long race with a lot of cars.”
Fernando Alonso, Alpine A522
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
It is the latest setback for the Spaniard after a string of retirements earlier in the season, with the 40-year-old stalwart driving at his best level for 10 years.
After scoring a season-best fifth place at Silverstone, Alonso is currently 10th in the standings with 28 points, 14 behind teammate Esteban Ocon.
“This year I feel probably at my highest level in terms of driving, thanks to the experience as well, maybe at the level of 2012 and I have 20 points or something, so it’s unbelievable.
“We’ve lost maybe 70 points, I guess 60 points if you count all the retirements, bad luck and reliability, so it’s a very strange season.
“Although, as I said, I’m very proud of my own work so far this year, I’m riding the best I can and then trying to work with a team as closely as possible.
“If we don’t get the points for all those reasons, it’s obviously very disappointing, but I’d be sadder if it was my own mistakes.”
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