Martin Brundle accuses Fernando Alonso of ‘football dive’ after trying to exploit F1 rule he really doesn’t like

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Aston Martin suffered a double elimination in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix in one of their worst performances as a team.

Fernando Alonso qualified in 19th place while Lance Stroll was only 20th quickest, after the pair struggled to get a lap in and were two seconds off Lando Norris’ pole lap.

The Spaniard is set to start the Belgian GP from the pit lane after going over his power unit component allocation, in what is likely a last-ditch attempt to salvage something out of the race.

Aston Martin team principal Andy Cowell confirmed the team had made setup adjustments to suit a wet weather setup, but conceded that they just didn’t have the pace.

Alonso was trying everything he could in the session, even doing one thing which Martin Brundle equated to a “football dive” when commentating on Sky Sports F1.

Martin Brundle accuses Fernando Alonso of ‘football dive’ after complaining over team radio

At the beginning of qualifying, a lot of the teams send their drivers into the fast lane in anticipation of the green light to get good track position for their first run.

There is an unwritten rule that drivers not in the fast lane should wait rather than attempting to join the queue, but some try to cut in regardless.

Oliver Bearman did this to Alonso and made contact with the Aston Martin, prompting Alonso to radio into the team so the FIA Stewards would investigate the Haas driver.

It’s a well-known practice that drivers and teams use the radio to gain the attention of Race Control, but Brundle feels it’s similar to the cynical foul.

Croft: “It was a bit tight in the pit lane, wasn’t it, Martin?”

Brundle: “It was a bit, but it’s always going to be because they’ve got to get into the pit lane somehow. It’s sort of turning into our equivalent to a football dive, isn’t it, and I don’t like it a whole lot.”

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Fernando Alonso still leads Lance Stroll on one qualifying stat

Despite both Aston Martins going out in the first part of qualifying, Alonso does keep one stat on Stroll.

The Spaniard is still 13-0 on Stroll for qualifying, having beaten him at every round of the 2025 season so far.

Stroll has made his frustrations with qualifying known, having punched a wall after he went out early on during the Spanish GP weekend.

Despite the qualifying record, Stroll is ahead of Alonso by four points in the Drivers’ Championship after a spate of reliability problems and bad luck in the early parts of the season.