The Alpine driver talked in today's press session about what happened in Sochi, as he took the escape route at Turn 2 on the first lap of the Russian GP. While he didn't gain positions, reason why he didn't get any punishment, the move allowed him not to lose places at the beginning of the race, and he ended up keeping his starting P6.

The Spaniard wasn't pleased with the questions on the topic, as he believes that there are different standards to hold the drivers too:

"[It was] just to confirm when I do things, they have a different behaviour, and a different repercussion on the following event. So now, maybe they change the run-off area in lap 1 in the first couple of corners."

Alonso added that it wasn't the first time that he witnessed such moves happening during the season, as he recalled Daniel Ricciardo overtaking him in Austria without paying attention to the track limits, but that the Australian hadn't been questioned on it at the time:

"I've been the idiot on track for most of the championship while I've been overtaken from the outside of the asphalt by many people for the first couple of races. Even in Austria, I remember Austria 1 and Austria 2, and nothing happened. There were no questions on the following race."

"Now after Sochi, there is a question. It's a confirmation. There are different rules for different people, or different, let's say, talks the week after for different people."

Alonso also brought up another episode that had happened at Sochi, when the other McLaren driver Lando Norris hadn't been punished with a time penalty but only received a reprimand after crossing the white line entering the pit lane:

"Let's see, the next one that crosses the white line on the pit entry, let's see which nationality he is and which penalty he will get," he concluded on the topic.

The two times World Champion was asked also about championship contender Max Verstappen, that goes into the Turkish weekend with a two points gap to Lewis Hamilton to close.

Alonso praised Verstappen's "relaxed and focused", as per the Dutch's words, approach to the title fight:

"He seems to deal with the pressure better than other people. Every one of us is different, but it seems that for him, it's not a big deal. Every weekend, he takes it race-by-race. I think that's the right approach for these remaining races."

The Spanish driver was also pleased to know that Verstappen would root for him if he wasn't an F1 driver himself, adding that him and George Russell were the young drivers that impressed him the most watching the races from home in his break from the sport:

"I'm happy to hear that, obviously. I said at the beginning of the championship as well, [when we had] not even started in Bahrain, that the drivers that impressed me more the last two years when I was at home watching TV was George [Russell] and his performance with the Williams, and Max."