Fernando Alonso felt the United States Grand Prix was amongst his best races of his career despite ultimately missing out on points due to a possible fuel-system failure late in the race while running in fifth position.
The Spaniard had fallen to the back of the field at the first turn after being spun around by the Williams of Felipe Massa, and limped around to the pits before rejoining a lap behind, but was able to capitalise on the intervention of the safety car to rejoin the lead lap and climb up to fifth in his updated McLaren-Honda, only to suffer late heartache with the mechanical issue and lose the final point on the final lap to the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.
“This was one of the best races of my career,” revealed Alonso. “To be running one minute behind the penultimate car on lap two, and then be running as high as fifth position with 10 laps remaining was quite a feat.
“After such a strong recovery, it was a shame that a mechanical issue in the closing laps put us out of the fight. That meant my feelings after the race were more sad than happy – but we can go away and continue to try to improve these issues.”
