Fernando Alonso said he was left feeling hurt after being forced to retire at the Mexican Grand Prix in what was his 400th race in the competition. (More Motorsport News)
Alonso qualified in 13th and started well in Mexico City, moving up a couple of places following Yuki Tsunoda's crash on the opening lap of proceedings.
However, after just 15 laps, the Spaniard was forced to retire from the race due to a suspected brake cooling issue caused by some debris stuck in his car.
Alonso has only missed four races since his first entry at the Australian Grand Prix in 2001.
Of the 1120 races in the history of the competition, the 43-year-old has competed in 35.7% of them.
"It was okay, the start was good," Alonso said. "Obviously, there was a lot of action in front of us, so we capitalised on that, but apparently, there was a bit of debris on the front brake ducts and the temperatures were over the moon.
“We tried to mitigate that, moving the brake balance rearwards and different actions, but it was still not under control so unfortunately we had to retire the car."
It was a familiar feeling for Alonso, who has suffered similar issues on his landmark occasions in the sport.
He also failed to finish at his 300th race back in 2018, as well as his 200th at the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix.
“It hurts always the same, to be honest, when you don’t see the chequered flag. It doesn’t matter which number," Alonso added.
“We are here to compete. In a way, when you have to retire the car it’s better when you are not in a super competitive weekend.
"It was maybe unlikely to score points today, so hopefully more luck will come, and we come back stronger in the next race and next year here.”
