Fernando Alonso was delighted to have won his second consecutive race this season in Japan.
The Spaniard took advantage of the startline chaos caused by Lewis Hamilton’s aggressive move on Kimi Raikkonen and found himself in second place behind Robert Kubica.
“The start was probably the most exciting I have seen in motor racing for sure,” he said.
“The drivers in front of me were very aggressive in Turn 1 and even I dropped the tyres and went a little bit wide. I think it surprised us. We locked up the tyres and everyone went long. I took the benefit of that and the race was a little bit easier after that.”
Alonso managed to leapfrog Kubica at the first round of pitstops courtesy of a searing pace around the Fuji International Circuit as well as quick thinking from the Renault mechanics.
“We were P2 when we stopped for the first time and I asked the team if we can exit the pits in front of Robert (Kubica), so they put less fuel to enable me to do that, but said you need to open a gap. Today the car was perfect and I was able to do it.”
Renault were over a second adrift of the front-runners at the beginning of the season and Alonso admits it is difficult to grasp the vast leap forward that the Enstone-based squad have made to the R28.
The win was made all the more sweeter by the fact that Alonso won under more normal circumstances compared to the chaos of Singapore a fortnight ago.
“It’s difficult to believe,” said Alonso. “The Singapore win was completely unexpected after Saturday.” Ok, it was special conditions with the safety car, but today we had nothing: we won again at a circuit which is not particularly good for our characteristics.”
“Obviously back to back wins is a very nice feeling. The team did a great job to improve the car, which is maybe now just behind Ferrari and McLaren. This is completely amazing.”
