Fernando Alonso says he was left wounded after being forced to retire from the Mexican Grand Prix, his 400th race in the sport. (More Motorsports News)
Alonso qualified 13th and started well in Mexico City, moving up a couple of positions after Yuki Tsunoda crashed on the first lap.
However, after only 15 laps, the Spaniard was forced to retire from the race owing to a suspected brake cooling issue caused by debris in his car.
Alonso has missed only four races since his debut at the Australian Grand Prix in 2001.
The 43-year-old has competed in 35.7% of the competition’s 1120 races to date.
“It was okay, the start was good,” Alonso stated. “Obviously, there was a lot of action in front of us, so we took advantage of it, but there was some debris on the front brake ducts, and the temperatures were sky-high.
“We tried to mitigate that, moving the brake balance rearwards and different actions, but it was still not under control so unfortunately we had to retire the car.” It was a familiar feeling for Alonso, who had previously experienced similar challenges on significant times in the sport.
He also failed to finish his 300th race in 2018 and his 200th at the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix.
“To be honest, it hurts the same whenever you don’t see the chequered flag. “It makes no difference which number,” Alonso remarked.
“We’re here to compete. In some ways, it is preferable to retire the automobile during a non-competitive weekend.
“It was maybe unlikely to score points today, so hopefully more luck will come, and we come back stronger in the next race and next year here.”
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