Fernando Alonso is a master of cheeky tactics, and he showed it once again at the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix.
The Spanish driver received a 20-second penalty at the Australian Grand Prix and it was for one of his cheeky moves. He broke earlier for a corner in an attempt to gain advantage of George Russell, who was very close to him.
Unfortunately, the Mercedes driver crashed, and it was determined by the FIA that it was the result of the two time World Champion's move, and therefore awarded him the penalty.
Alonso obviously wasn't happy with that, but that didn't stop him from showing another trick from his book at the Suzuka Circuit, this time, something we've seen also from other drivers in recent memory.
The 42-year-old purposefully gave Oscar Piastri in McLaren DRS to stop Russell in Mercedes from overtaking him, giving both himself and the Australian driver a chance for a better finish.
Eventually, Russell did overtake Piastri, but Alonso finished in front of both. After the race, he was asked about the cheeky tactic, taking a sly dig at the FIA, saying he won't comment as they "may disqualify him."
Russell was also asked about it after the race, and he found the funny side of it, as funnily, it was the Spanish driver, who is also his good friend, who used some kind of tactic to keep the Brit away from achieving a better result.
"Fernando playing games? That’s new! It was smart from Fernando and I expected nothing less, that’s part of racing."
Alonso, who used the cheeky tactic to finish in P6, was very happy about his result when talking to Sky Sports, as he felt that what he achieved with the car was way over where it should have been.
"I think it was one of my best races, or my best weekends. I think it was very complete and very strong, very solid from free practice to the race, maybe the best of the last year or maybe even top five of my career."
"But it’s going to be completely anonymous. Everyone will forget by tomorrow this weekend that we had. But I felt connected with the car. I think P5 yesterday that is completely out of position and P6 today is completely out of position."