Last time out at the British Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc was finger-wagged as his Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto tried to bring him to the line after a disappointing race for the championship hopeful. Both later downplayed the moment with former F1 driver-turned-pundit Jenson Button, pointing out that no one points the finger at a friend to “cheer them up”. Alonso’s shake at Tsunoda was definitely not in line with friendship, more like punishment. Fighting for a place in Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix, the Spaniard tried to pass Tsunoda on the straight between turns 3 and 4. The AlphaTauri driver pushed his rival from the Alps to the edge of the track, with Alonso putting a wheel on the grass at 300km/h. Despite the hairy moment, the Spaniard didn’t let up and seconds later passed Tsunoda, giving him the good ol’ finger in the process. “I was on the grass so I don’t know why he was pushing me so far,” said the Alpine driver. “I was with DRS on the grass, resting, and there was no way to defend. “I was already side by side so I don’t know. “I feel like things like that are better avoided at 300km/h, but it was OK.” Fernando Alonso fingering Yuki Tsunoda at 200mph mid race after being forced onto the grass is the pinnacle of Alonso 😅 pic.twitter.com/65NGI98lOi — ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) July 10, 2022 Alonso finished the race in 10th place, scoring a single point, while Tsunoda was P16, ahead of only Sebastian Vettel. The AlphaTauri driver believes it was the worst grand prix weekend of this championship as his AT03 was off the pace. Both teammates failed to qualify for Q3 on Friday night, lost places in Saturday’s sprint race and from there were unable to recover for Sunday’s grand prix. “It was tough, a very long race as I had no pace at all,” Tsunoda told F1’s official website. “I gave everything but the situation didn’t improve and I have to move on. “It was probably the toughest race week so far. “Qualifying was okay, but other than that this race weekend was horrible. “Hopefully this is the last time we end up like this and hopefully from now on we can compete in a higher position.” His teammate Pierre Gasly, who was involved in an incident with Vettel for which he was penalized, finished the race in 15th place.
