Alonso struggled to get out of the Aston at the end of the Brazilian GP – Watch the VIDEO

One of the most difficult of the 401 races of his life in Formula 1 was experienced last Sunday (3/11) in Brazil by Fernando Alonso – on the track where 19 years ago he had celebrated the first world championship of his career.

The 43-year-old Spaniard had started from 9th position, following an accident he had in the qualifying tests on the same morning in the Aston Martin AMR24. From the time of the accident to the start of the race, the mechanics raced to get the car repaired.

Fernando went to Interlago having already suffered the previous week from gastroenteritis. Between the Mexico and Brazil games he flew back to Europe for treatment, and was already exhausted ahead of the three days at Interlago.

As if that wasn’t enough, and his accident, in the Sao Paulo race his Aston was showing extensive bounces.

A few laps before the end the Spaniard radioed his engineer the following words: “I will end the race for the engineers. They did a really good job today. But my back hurts, man. The bounces are not normal.”

Once he finished, and returned to park-and-ride on the pitch line, visibly overwhelmed, the Spaniard found himself struggling from his cockpit – as caught on camera by a spectator in the pitch building.

It took several seconds, with the support of one of his mechanics, for the Spaniard to straighten his back and get out of the car. At the same time, Carlos Sainz was returning to the garages after his accident on the 38th lap of the race, and he stopped to examine, worriedly, the condition of his compatriot.

Speaking to the press later, Alonso described his race as a “nightmare” and admitted he might have dropped out of the race if his mechanics hadn’t worked so hard to repair his car after the crash in qualifying.

“The bounces (of the car) were very intense in the second half of the race, I don’t know why” he added. “It was a difficult match, we were out of points. I think under other circumstances, I probably would have stopped.

But the mechanics did an incredible job before the race to get the car ready for the start, so I had to finish for them. It was a tough fight. After the morning accident, we had to go back to a less efficient (aero) package in the car, so we were slower in the race.

Then we had a brake problem – I think Lance (Stroll) had a brake problem on the formation lap – and then I had after all the restarts. It was like pulling on the parking brake. Overall, it was a nightmare out there, but we have to get better for the next three games.” continue.

Additionally, Alonso revealed that he felt compelled to endure the pain as a show of solidarity for the people affected by the floods in the Spanish city of Valencia.

“It was painful, for sure. The preparation for this race was long from my side, with a lot of tests, a lot of work, physical therapy and doctor visits, so that I could come to Brazil. So it was a great effort from everyone.

It wasn’t comfortable in the car, but there are people who have it worse than me. In Valencia too, we have these terrible images and people fighting, so I had to endure a few laps for everyone”the 43-year-old continued.

And he concluded: “All the tests have been done. I’ve been checking everything for the last two-three days. We have done a lot of work on my condition. I think after this fight we have a setback, for sure, for my body. So for the next four or five days, we have to get everything back in order.”.