“F***ing end of the race”: Alonso’s unheard rage over the Safety Car explained

Fernando Alonso howled with rage when the Safety Car was first deployed during the Dutch Grand Prix.

The Aston Martin driver had pitted just five laps earlier and he feared the appearance of the Safety Car had ruined his race.

He got the first indication the bad news was coming when race engineer Andrew Vizard warned him: “Yellow at turn three, Hamilton in the wall.” Alonso vented his fury when Vizard confirmed “Safety Car, keep delta positive” shortly afterwards.

“Yep,” Vizard acknowledged. “No overtaking.”

“Fucking luck we have always, shit,” fumed Alonso. “Ah, fucking end of the race. Fucking lucky.”

The situation looked bad for Alonso at this point. Having started 10th he had immediately slipped three places and spent his opening stint trapped behind the drivers who overtook him.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, immediately ahead of him, had been struggling in vain to pass Yuki Tsunoda, and Alonso could only look on as a gap opened up to Alexander Albon ahead in the final points place.

Aston Martin brought Alonso in on lap 18 for an aggressively early stop as he sought to gain the benefit of new tyres before the others. It worked to begin with: he gained a place from Tsunoda when the Red Bull driver pitted.

But once Hamilton crashed, Alonso knew it would allow those who had not yet pitted to do so and lose less time while the Safety Car was out. Sure enough, by the time the race restarted he was only 14th, a net loss of two positions given Hamilton’s retirement, and on older tyres than those around him.

Alonso got back into contention the hard way, making another early visit to the pits for his second tyre change. After that he managed to pass the Saubers and Franco Colapinto’s Alpine before the Safety Car was deployed again. This time he was close enough to benefit from cars ahead pitting and rose to ninth, but still faced a sprint to the flag on older tyres than those around him.

Alonso fell to 11th after being passed by Lance Stroll, whose second pit stop coincided with Charles Leclerc’s crash which caused the second Safety Car appearance, and the one-stopping Oliver Bearman. But a final pass on Pierre Gasly, Lando Norris’s shock late exit from the race and Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s penalty meant he came away with eighth place.

While Alonso must have hoped for more than ninth at one stage, and he can’t have been happy to lose points to his team mate who started nine places behind him, it was a better result than he expected when the Safety Car first appeared.

“At the end, to be in the points, [eighth] is great and a nice result,” he reflected after the race, “but the afternoon was not easy.”

“I think the Safety Cars didn’t help. They were in the wrong time, at the wrong place. Some of the cars that finished in front of us, I think they were significantly slower than us, like the Haases. So we lost maybe an opportunity.”

2025 Dutch Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

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2025 Dutch Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

2025 Dutch Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

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2025 Dutch Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

2025 Dutch Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

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2025 Dutch Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

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