Fernando Alonso was disappointed to see his chance of a points finish at the Austrian Grand Prix disappear due to power issues on his McLaren-Honda, with the Spaniard pulling into the pits to retire with just a handful of laps remaining.
Alonso had looked on course for a point or two earlier in the race, but ever-present issues with the battery caused the Spaniard to fall away, and when outside of the points stopped in the pits.
Alonso was happy though to see team-mate Jenson Button drive a competitive race to sixth, and bringing in some good points for the team at the Red Bull Ring.
“We had bad luck this weekend,” said Alonso. “It was a tough race for me today – the engine wasn’t running well from about lap three or four, I was losing power due to an issue with the battery, so we were on the verge of retiring the car for the whole race.
“But, since we were running on the fringe of the top 10, we knew there was a point on the table, and kept going in a bid to finish. In the end, it just wasn’t possible.
“We need to learn from the problems we had this weekend, but we also go away with some positives: our car was competitive in variable conditions yesterday, and Jenson scoring some good points for the team today.”
