Saturday was the beginning of a challenging weekend for Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. The Spaniard finished at the back in the sprint race, and last hopes for improvement were gone after both he and his teammate, Lance Stroll, crashed out in the wet qualifying session on Sunday morning.

Though Aston Martin’s crew managed to repair the cars in time for the main race, problems continued to pile up. Stroll spun off on the formation lap and ended up beached in the gravel, forcing him out before the race even started.

Alonso, however, managed to start the race despite dealing with a car that was far from its best. The bumpy Interlagos track surface made things even harder, sending repeated impacts through his spine.

During the race, he even radioed his team about the back problems, sounding really in pain, but said that he won’t give up for the mechanics, who worked hard to get his car ready.

“I will finish the race for the mechanics. They did a very good job today,” he said.

“But my back is hurting, man. This bouncing is not normal.”

Later on, an unstreamed post-race footage showed him climbing out of his car slowly, clearly in pain and needing support from a mechanic.

On top of the physical problems, Alonso faced brake issues that made it difficult to stay on course, but he was determined to finish the race. 

Despite his efforts, a wide moment at the final restart pushed Alonso down the order, but he fought back, closing a 20-second gap to pass Zhou Guanyu and finish 14th.

The two-time world champion later admitted that the car struggled during the race, especially compared to qualifying, and the constant bouncing took a toll on his back.

“It was a lot of bouncing, a lot of porpoising in the second half of the race. I don’t know why.

“It was a tough race, we were out of the points. I think in any other circumstances, probably I would have stopped.

“But the mechanics did an incredible job before the race to put the car ready on the grid, so I had to finish for them, But it was a difficult race.

“After this morning, we had to go back to a less-performing package on the car, so the race was a little bit of a slower pace from our side.

“Then we had a brake issue – I think Lance had a brake problem in the formation lap – and I had the brake issue after all the restarts, where the brake balance goes completely rearwards. It’s like braking with a handbrake.

“So all in all it was a nightmare out there, but we need to get better for the next three [races].”