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Fernando Alonso had to overcome a painful back and brake issues to bring his Aston Martin AMR24 home in 14^th place after a difficult Sao Paulo GP.

At one stage he reported on team radio that he wanted to finish the race mainly as a thank you to the mechanics for their earlier hard work in repairing his car after a crash in Q3.

Alonso missed Thursday’s activities after returning to Spain for checks on a health issued he suffered in Mexico, and arrived at Interlagos on Friday.

He finished 19^th in Saturday’s sprint, ahead of team mate Lance Stroll, after the race turned into a test session for Aston after a setup change didn’t pay off.

Sunday’s wet qualifying session was initially promising, and Alonso was second in Q2 before having a heavy crash early in Q3.

The team managed to repair his car in time to make the grid, but he had to go back to an earlier and less favoured floor spec.

From ninth on the grid he held that position for much of the first half of the race, before slipping down the order in the latter stages his back became an issue.

“It was a lot of bounce and a lot of porpoising in the second half of the race,” he said when asked by this writer about the back problem.

“I don’t know why. So yeah, it was a tough race. We were out of the points. I think in any other circumstances, probably I will stop. But the mechanics did an incredible job before the race to put the car ready on the grid, so I had to finish for them.

“It was a difficult race. After this morning, we had to go back to a less performing package on the car. So the race was a little bit slower pace from our side. And then we had the brake issue.

“I think Lance had the brake problem in the formation lap, and I had the brake issue after all the restarts, where all the brake balance goes completely rearwards.

“It’s like a braking with a hand brake. So it was all-in-all a nightmare out there. We need to get better for the next three.”

Elaborating on his physical issues he said: “It was painful, for sure, and yeah, the lead into this race, it was a lot of preparation from my side, a lot of checks, a lot of work, a lot of physio and doctors in order to come here in Brazil.

“So it was a lot of effort from everybody, same effort as the mechanics put today. It was not comfortable in the car. But there are people worse than me. Also in Valencia, we have these terrible images. And people struggling. So I had to struggle in a couple of laps for everybody.”

He agreed that his trip back to Europe between races hadn’t been easy.

“It was an incredible commitment to come here, to have the race, and the car really was not able to race with the others,” he said. “So that was the most painful thing.

“All the checks have been done. I checked everything the last two or three days, we did a lot of work. My condition, I think, after this race we have a setback for sure, on my body. So the next four or five days, we have to reset everything.”

He also suggested that the FIA should look at some aspects of the weekend.

“It was a very non-typical race, with the qualifying and the race so close, even the time in between the two sessions,” he said. “Maybe it was too short, guys like Alex [Albon] didn’t have time to repair the car.

“So maybe we need to set a minimum time between the end of quali and the race just to allow everybody to race. Because the fans, they come here to see 20 drivers racing. At the end the weather allowed us to complete the race. So that was good.”

George Russell believes that he would have finished at least second in the Sao Paulo GP had Mercedes not disagreed with him and called him in for a tyre change under the VSC.

Russell referenced the successful tyre strategy that he called from the cockpit at the Belgian GP, noting that “sometimes you have to trust your gut.”

Russell was in the lead ahead of Lando Norris when the VSC intervention prompted multiple teams to call their drivers in for a fresh set of intermediates. He challenged with the decision, suggesting that a red flag was likely, but was obliged to go along with it.

However Esteban Ocon, Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly all stayed out and moved into the top three places.

When a red flag was called for shortly afterwards all three benefited from a free tyre change during the stoppage, and then went on to finish in the top three places.

Russell made his frustration clear on the radio, saying “I said it! We should have stayed out.”

He eventually finished fourth on the tail of Gasly as the best-placed driver to stop and change tyres under racing conditions.

“If we stayed out, we would have been we’d have been first at the restart, ahead of Ocon and Max and Gasly,” he said. “And leading from the front is much easier. Where we could have ended up, I don’t know. But I was pretty, pretty angry at the time, because I wanted to stay out.”

Russell was adamant that his preference to stay out was the correct one.

“From the team’s perspective it’s not obvious at all,” he said of the decision to pit. “From the cockpit it was very clear it was going to be a red flag or safety car, because the conditions were undriveable.

“The rain was not easing, and I could see the big black cloud above me. And then I had Shov [Andrew Shovlin] jump on, like overruling my engineer to say box.

“We’re working as a team. We’re trying to make the best decisions in the time. Clearly, the guys who didn’t pit, they finished one-two-three, and we finished the highest of the drivers who did so. I would take a small slice of satisfaction from that.”

Elaborating on the debate over the radio he said: “It was box, I said stay out, it was box again, it was stay out. They said box again, and as I said, I wanted to stay out. And then the last one, you’ve got to go for it.

“Sometimes you have to trust your gut. Last time I trusted my gut, it went down pretty well.

“Today who knows if we could have won the race, but if we didn’t pit, we would have been leading at the restart, and the first 30 laps, controlling the pace with Lando behind, we had very good straight line speed as well. P2 would have been a minimum.

“If we stayed out, we would have been we’d have been first at the restart, ahead of Ocon and Max and Gasly And leading from the front is much easier.

“Where we could have ended up, I don’t know. But I was pretty angry at the time, because I wanted to stay out.”

Could Franco Colapinto one day race in his home country?

A delegation from Argentina met with Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali at Interlagos on Friday with a view to the country hosting a race in the future.

Domenicali spoke to Daniel Scioli, the country’s secretary of tourism, environment and sports and a former vice-president, and Cesar Carman, the president of the Automovil Club Argentino.

Friday’s discussion was an exploratory chat, and at the moment it looks unlikely a slot will be available on the calendar in the near future, especially with a queue of prospective venues wanting to host races.

However the idea has some momentum as Franco Colapinto’s arrival at Williams has supercharged interest in the sport in his home country, with thousands of fans travelling to the Austin, Mexico City and Sao Paolo events.

Inevitably that has revived the idea of bringing back the Argentine GP after earlier attempts – which didn’t benefit from the presence of a local star on the grid – failed to materialise.

The plan is to return to the Autodromo de Buenos Aires, which was last used for F1 in 1995-’98. However the intention is to utilise a rebuilt version of the original and longer track that was used sporadically between 1953 and 1981, rather than the shorter nineties layout.

Despite the presence of a minister at Interlagos the event would be backed by the private sector, rather than by the central or local government.

“Stefano is a great man, and really we appreciate a lot this conversation,” former powerboat racer Scioli told me.

“It was very positive. What Franco is doing, not only in the circuit but outside, is great. We will study this very carefully. We will have private investment.”

Carman conceded that a lot of work would be required to bring the former GP venue up to modern standards.

“Stefano was very nice with us,” said the ACA boss. “He says that he would really like to have another Grand Prix, but it’s going to take a lot of work from us, and we need to start to start working. And we have to do a lot of things.

“We have to improve the racetrack. We have to take it to Grade I. As I said we have to do a lot of things, but we are very optimistic. I don’t want to give dates, because I don’t know, but I think 2027-‘28 is more realistic.”

Regarding the finances he said: “Daniel has already told me that he has the finance from the private sector.

“The current government says that the government doesn’t need to do what the private sector can do better!”

Carman confirmed that Colapinto has had a major impact in the short time that he has been on the F1 grid.

“I think that a lot of things are happening because of Franco,” he said. “Franco has a disruptive effect on us, on Argentina, and the Argentine fans are very enthusiastic about having Franco racing in Argentina. So everything is joined. Things are aligning. It’s like a dream.”

Ferrari scored two GP wins – and 96 points – across two weekends

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur says that the team “did a very strong job” to win two Formula 1 races in eight days in Austin and Mexico City.

Vasseur says that the SF-24 showed good pace in the previous races in Baku and Singapore, but the team did execute as well as it could have done.

In contrast in the last two races everything has gone to plan, with Ferrari logging four podiums and scoring 96 points across the two weekends – enough to move the team ahead of Red Bull into second place in the World Championship.

“We had a good weekend,” said Vasseur when asked by this writer if he was proud of the team after the Mexican race.

“And I was a bit frustrated after Baku/Singapore, because I had the feeling that the pace was there, that the performance, we were able to fight for pole position and even more. And we didn’t execute the weekend pretty well.

“And if you want to perform first, you need to have a good car, but then you need to do a good job. And we struggled a little bit.

“We struggled a little bit also in the journey of the season, after Canada, or after Monaco. And when you have a look on the championship, you say, okay like this, we have to do a better job.

“In the last two or three weekends I have the feeling that it’s much more under control from the start, the pit stop, the strategy.

“For sure when the pace is there, it’s everything is much easier. The strategy it’s much easier when you are a bit faster than a bit slower. But overall, I think we did a very strong job this week.”

In recent races the team has focussed on honing the package that it introduced at the Italian GP.

“The fight is very, very tight,” he said. “It means that we are all a bit on the edge for one or two tenths, you can move from a very good weekend to a poor one, because the race, when you are not in clean air, it’s a completely different story.

“And sometimes when you bring something you need one or two weekends to be used to set up the car, and it’s probably what’s happened with us.

“The last time that we brought something, I think was Monza, the big one. But we were not sure, perhaps at the beginning we are thinking that perhaps it’s track related.

“And then we have two street circuits in a row with Baku and. Singapore, and it’s only in Austin that we came back to a more conventional circuit to draw conclusions. But it’s true that from Monza, we are in a much better place.”

Vasseur says it was key that the team took a step back on spec earlier in the season after updates didn’t bring the expected gains.

“It’s true that the reaction of the team was a very good one,” he said. “I don’t remember the sequence, but probably UK or Spain, when we struggled a little bit to be able to accept that we have to do a step back, and honestly we lost probably one or two weekends in terms of pure pace.

“But it was a good move and a good call, and then we were back into a decent pace at the end of July, in Spa or Budapest we were back, and it was a very good call from the team.”

In recent races the team has focussed on honing the package that it introduced at the Italian GP.

“The fight is very, very tight,” he said. “It means that we are all a bit on the edge for one or two tenths, you can move from a very good weekend to a poor one, because the race, when you are not in clean air, it’s a completely different story.

“And sometimes when you bring something you need one or two weekends to be used to set up the car, and it’s probably what’s happened with us.

“The last time that we brought something, I think was Monza, the big one. But we were not sure, perhaps at the beginning we are thinking that perhaps it’s track related.

“And then we have two street circuits in a row with Baku and. Singapore, and it’s only in Austin that we came back to a more conventional circuit to draw conclusions. But it’s true that from Monza, we are in a much better place.”

Vasseur insists that Ferrari has benefited from not thinking too much about the big picture of the constructors’ World Champion ship.”

“I think it’s important for us to have no distraction,” he said. “But we are clear for months now on this, to be focused on what we are doing, on the car, on the management of the team, to take the race, race after race, and not to think about the global picture. And I think it’s paying off today.”

Gasly earned a point after surviving lap one contact

Alpine Formula 1 driver Pierre Gasly admits that he had “a lucky escape” at the start of the Mexico City GP after emerging from the Yuki Tsunoda/Alex Albon incident intact.

Gasly made wheel-to-wheel contact with Albon just as the Williams driver was clipped by Tsunoda, who was launched into the wall on the left.

One of Tsunoda’s tyres became detached from its rim and bounced off Gasly’s front wing.

Gasly feared that he had picked up a puncture from the Albon contact, but while the other cars involved retired he was able to continue safely. He eventually bagged a valuable point for 10^th place.

“I asked if I had a puncture because I couldn’t really see Alex,” he said when asked by this writer about the crash.

“I felt the touch on the rear on braking, and usually at high-speed like that, it can easily create a puncture.

“So we had a quite lucky escape. It was quite hectic as well, like when I saw the tyre, didn’t expect that to fly right past the car. I think it touched my front left, actually. So it was quite impressive.”

Gasly said he was pleased to have finished 10^th from eighth on the grid, as simulations suggested that Sergio Perez would come through the field and demote him to 10^th.

“I’m happy,” he said. “Ahead of the race we knew it was going to be P11 if Perez could make it back, 10th if he doesn’t. So I think we clearly did the best we could. At the start, I kind of hoped that maybe I could hang on with the Haas.

“On medium, I wasn’t too far, but I could see them pulling away like a tenth or two. But then as we switched too hard, they were just way too competitive. And looking at [Kevin] Magnussen, where he finished, they’re definitely very strong on Sundays.”

He added: “I think we did a very strong job [in qualifying], which basically set us up for a strong race. We tried to hang on with the Haas when potentially other cars behind maybe had slightly more pace initially than us, and then after, tried to use the free air, no mistakes, and execute a strong strategy.

“So I think it was well-executed. But for sure, starting in that top 10 made our life a lot easier.”

The Mexican result was especially encouraging after Gasly tumbled out of the points in the US GP.

“On our side just happy we managed to learn from Austin,” he said. “Two Q3s in two weekends, P12 last week wasn’t a very strong race, and this weekend, we seem clearly seemed to have a bit better pace.

“So still some work to do, but at least I think the last point finished for us was in Zandvoort, so I’m happy for the team that we managed to get back in the top 10.”