McLaren was given a rare treat when both of their drivers managed to score points. The struggling team has had difficulty snatching any points in the World Championship, so having both drivers back home some points was truly something to celebrate. However, celebration would be short lived.
Jenson Button finished in ninth position, earning two points. His teammate, Fernando Alonso was directly behind and grabbed one point. Both cars were running on the lead lap. This weekend was already special for McLaren, marking Alonso’s 250th Grand Prix. As a gift, the FIA decided to give Alonso a very special gift: a penalty.
Despite giving Alonso a 35 place grid penalty for changing some components on the car, the FIA wouldn’t let him leave Russia empty handed. They issued a five second time penalty for disobeying the track limits at turn 16. This was enough to drop Alonso behind Max Verstappen and take away McLaren’s point.
“To have both cars finish in the top 10 at a circuit where we didn’t expect to fare well, was a nice surprise. It was just a shame to lose out afterwards [owing to a 5s penalty for corner-cutting],” Fernando Alonso said. “In fact, the car performed very well in the race – I think we were able to look after the tyres a little bit better than the cars around us, and, on an afternoon where every little bit helped, we made the most of that.”
Eric Boullier, the racing director at McLaren, was quite proud of him drivers’ performance in the race. Even though this penalty wiped out Alonso’s point, Boullier felt that both Jenson and Alonso drove as hard as they possibly could. “This circuit isn’t one that suits our car well, and our boys duly found it difficult to defend their positions on the straights in particular,” Boullier explained. “But they didn’t put a foot wrong all afternoon, finishing ninth and 10th on the road, and I’m delighted that, as a result, we were able to score another points finish, even though sadly Fernando later lost his 10th place in the stewards’ room.”
Although it is sad to see a team that has been trying so hard face a fate like this, it’s only fair. The rules are the rules and it would be unfair for the stewards’ to have bent the regulations to benefit one team. Certainly the McLaren team understands that and did not let this hinder their post-race celebrations.
