Fernando Alonso: Why are we so unlucky, I do not know

      Ferando Alonso complained to the team on the radio during yesterday's Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix: "I'm the unluckiest racer in the world!" and added that the race had turned into torture for him.

      After the finish, talking to the press, he explained his words: "Yes, I meant that today we finally had a pretty fast car. The start went well, and after that I was able to keep up with Lando Norris and George Russell.

      In fact, Russell was even a little slower than Lance and me, and I even wanted to pinch myself – I couldn't believe that I was fighting in the front row, and we were quite competitive. But it only lasted until the first pit stop.

      After all, I thought that we could count on 6th and 7th places, but then the virtual safety car (VSC) mode was introduced, and of course, those who were not in the pits at that time had the opportunity to pit stops without losing position.

      And all these drivers with fresh tires drove out of the pit lane onto the track and were right in front of us, and then the race was over for us. In general, I think that out of 100 different scenarios, in 99 of them we should have earned the points that are so important for our team. Only in one case did we lose this opportunity, but events unfolded exactly like that.

      We can only hope that luck will be on our side in other races and we will earn something, even if we don't deserve it. It's not about the VSC mode itself – it was entered correctly, because it was necessary to evacuate the car from the highway, and the marshals had to push it. It wouldn't make a difference to us, even if a real safety car had pulled out. It just happened at the wrong time for us, and we were in the wrong place.

      I do not know why we are so unlucky. It seems to me that we have been plagued by incredible bad luck all season, because if we remember Australia, then I had a confident attitude there. In China, I had problems with the brakes on my car, and three competitors were disqualified at that time. We chose the wrong tactics in Miami. And today, when we finally had a fast car, and we could earn points precisely due to our own speed, the VSC mode prevented it.

      In previous races, when we finished around 12th or 13th place, there was no VSC. At the same time, there were people in Imola whose weekend was completely ordinary, but they managed to get to the top five. Still, it's encouraging that we had a very efficient car, because in the last nine laps I was able to beat three people: Liam Lawson, Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly. The riders we usually compete with in the middle of the peloton were clearly slower than us, which is a very good sign. But we still didn't earn anything..."