McLaren surpasses Alpine in the constructors’ standings after Singapore
After the retirements of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon at Alpine, and the good performances of McLaren drivers, the British team moves up to fourth place in the Formula 1 World Teams Championship.
A catastrophic weekend for Alpine. That’s an understatement after the retirements of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon, both of whom were victims of technical issues in Singapore.
The Spanish driver was thus forced to retire on lap 21, while he was having a great race, in sixth position. A very sad way to conclude his 350th Grand Prix, making him the most experienced Formula 1 driver in history, surpassing Kimi Räikkönen.
A few laps later, it was Esteban Ocon’s turn to retire. According to the team, both cars experienced a similar issue with the engines.
This is the third time this season that Alpine comes back empty-handed, but it’s the second consecutive time after the Italian Grand Prix. Esteban Ocon finished eleventh in Monza, while Fernando Alonso also had to retire from the race.
« It is regrettable to have had to abandon early in today’s race. We missed out on big points for the championship. But we also need to know how to look at the positive side of things, and we can once again be very proud of our performance this weekend », Fernando Alonso reacted after the race, already looking ahead to Suzuka next Sunday.
This zero score benefits McLaren in the constructors’ standings, who also benefit from the good performances of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, who finish 4th and 5th in the race. With these 22 points in hand, the British team therefore moves ahead of Alpine and finds itself in 4th place with its 129 points, (very) far behind Mercedes (373 points).
But nothing is decided in the team championship, as there are still five races left to be contested, and with just 4 points behind, Alpine can still dream of closing the gap on McLaren.
