An ill-timed change to intermediate tyres wreaked havoc on Fernando Alonso's chances of scoring points in Sunday's German Grand Prix.
Changing weather conditions set in at Hockenheim in the latter part of the race, with sporadic rain complicating teams' timing of tyre changes, and McLaren was no exception unfortunately.
Alonso feared a premature swap to Pirelli's inters would quickly ruin the tyres as the track was dry in more places than it was wet.
Indeed, shortly after he had changed compounds the Spaniard reported back to his crew that the rain had stopped and another tyre change was inevitable.
"It was a tricky race today," said Alonso.
"We bet on the rain and at the first drops we pitted for Intermediate tyres, expecting that it would rain hard in the following few minutes.
"But, it didn’t, and we were out there on a dry track with wet tyres, so we killed them and then we had to stop again to get back onto dry tyres.
"At that point, our race was compromised."
Like his rivals, Alonso was forced to compose with the tricky conditions, but ultimately the McLaren driver was brought in to retire the car just one lap from the checkered flag after his team notted a gearbox issue.
"It was difficult conditions out there, but we weren’t in the points so we had to try something. Disappointingly, the bet was the wrong one," he admitted.
"At the end of the race, the team told me to retire the car, as they probably saw something on the data."
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