Fernando Alonso has revealed two separate issues with his Honda-powered Aston Martin were behind his stop-start Australian Grand Prix, not the vibrations caused by the battery.

That, however, does remain an issue as Honda’s solutions haven’t minimised the vibrations to the chassis as the battery needs to be isolated in a “different way”.

Fernando Alonso explains issues behind disrupted Australian GP

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A difficult weekend for Aston Martin and Honda in Melbourne led to one car retiring, Alonso, while Lance Stroll was 11 laps down.

Both Aston Martins spent time in the garage mid-race in an eventful afternoon for the Silverstone-based team.

Alonso lined up 17th with a blistering start elevating him to tenth, a position he held for the first two laps as several rival drivers struggled with their starts. However, once they got going, Alonso plummeted back to 17th.

The Spaniard’s race appeared to be over on Lap 15 as he pulled into the Aston Martin garage only to return to the track later on, 11 laps down.

Aston Martin reported: “The team decided to bring Fernando back into the garage to make some adjustments to his AMR26. He has now rejoined.”

Alonso was soon back in the pits where the team retired his car to “conserve components”.

Alonso’s 11-lap break led to speculation that perhaps he had stopped to give his hands a break after he revealed in the build-up to the Melbourne race that his hands had been going a “little bit numb” during testing after just 25 minutes of driving the car.

Instead, the double World Champion said it was an issue with the car that forced him to make his initial stop before another issue emerged after he had rejoined the action.

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“Definitely, I think the start and the first two laps were the most enjoyable part of the race,” Alonso told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media of his Sunday in Melbourne.

“I mean, P10 for two laps was unexpected but I think the start is not our problem. While everyone else was struggling for the boost or whatever they have, for us it was a clean first lap.

“Obviously completely out of position in P10 so I fell back to P17 and then we had a small issue on data that we had to stop the car.

“We thought we’d repaired it and then we went back out again, and I think another issue appeared so we had to stop the car for a second time.”

But the vibrations remain an issue.

Admitting the vibrations were ‘similar to Bahrain’, Alonso said the feeling inside the car was the same.

“This is not the best feeling driving with this level of vibration,” the 44-year-old continued.

“I think Honda thinks the vibrations on the battery are really reduced since Bahrain with some of the modifications, but that didn’t happen to the chassis yet because they need to isolate the battery in a different way.

“I think it will take a little bit more time but we try to do our best and to do as many laps as possible to help the team.”

Asked whether he’s expecting the situation to be any different at next weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, he replied: “No different, we have the same car, the same power unit next weekend. So I expect another tough weekend.

“But meanwhile we cannot give up, we need to keep trying different solutions, especially with the chassis, try to understand and get better. In the package in general, I think we are not optimised in anything yet because of the lack of mileage. So China will be another good opportunity.”

Additional reporting by Mat Coch

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