It's unknown if Fernando Alonso broke a mirror ahead of his return to F1 this year, but the Alpine driver feels that luck is avoiding him "big time" this season.
Buoyed by his strong performance in qualifying at Istanbul Park, Alonso was confident of a strong showing by launching his race from P5 on the grid.
Unfortunately, the Spaniard's miserable afternoon was sealed as soon as the first corner when AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly understeered into his Alpine and nudged him into a spin.
Never one to give up, Alonso collected his car and rejoined the action at the rear of the field only to clash with Haas' Mick Schumacher, a mishap that warranted a five-second time penalty for the two-time world champion.
Alonso, who concluded his day a lowly P16, argued that he should not have been anywhere near the low end of the pack had he been spared Gasly's mishap at the first corner.
"We touched each other, unfortunately he had the spin and I got the penalty, I take it of course, because I’m sorry to have the collision with him," he explained, alluding to his contact with Schumacher.
"That happened only because I was P14, I should not have been, but the luck seems to keep avoiding us this year big time, so I guess we are accommodating a lot for next year.
“It’s frustrating that when we are not competitive we have a very boring race, and when we are competitive we have crazy weather and crazy things happening.
"We’ve been historically this year a little bit less competitive on the intermediate tyres, and the whole race was intermediate, we didn’t even put the dry tyres on.
"So we need to improve our competitive level also on that compound. But it’s frustrating and disappointing."
At the end of the day, Alonso offered a fatalistic view of events.
"I think the first corner is always difficult in these conditions," he said. "We were nearly for the first time on these wet tyres at the start all together, so these things can happen
"Unfortunately, it happened for us when we are top five, but I hope there are chaotic races next time when we are behind but not when we are at the front."
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