Autosportfoto

Palmer doesn't care about Alonso criticism after Monza F1 clash

Jolyon Palmer says he doesn't care about Fernando Alonso's complaints following their clash in the Italian Grand Prix, because he believes the McLaren driver pushed him off the circuit.

Alonso was furious during the race when Palmer did not concede position to him after going off track at the second chicane as they battled under braking.

He was also unhappy that the Renault driver only received a five-second penalty from the stewards, who he accused of "having a Heineken" rather than watching the race.

But Palmer feels Alonso was at fault for the incident.

"I was ahead coming in the corner, he braked super late and forced me off the track," Palmer told Sky Sports.

"I'm sure it will be another talking point at the next race because Fernando is not very happy about it but I don't care."

Palmer was unhappy earlier in the weekend with the FIA's verdict on Alonso running him out of road at Spa, and he said that clarification from F1 race director Charlie Whiting made incidents like the one at Monza inevitable.

"It's what I thought might happen," he said. "We had a big meeting [at Monza] and if someone is on the inside you know you can just release the brakes.

"You are ahead at the apex, sure, but the other guy has nowhere to go apart from crash or cut the corner.

"I cut the corner, came back on side-by-side, and made it in the next corner."

Palmer eventually had to retire from the race, which Alonso described as "karma", and the Briton said the penalty he had to serve at his pitstop was costly in his battle to get near the points positions at that time.

"We were looking pretty good in the race, then the five seconds in the stop put us quite a long way back," he added, having run as high as 11th before his stop.

"The pace we had was good, quicker than all those in that group up to the edge of the points, it's just a shame that on the super-soft [in the second stint] I didn't get the chance to catch and overtake some people."

Zdroj: autosport.com