Fernando Alonso believed his seventh place finish in the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday was the maximum he could have achieved, especially with Mercedes AMG PETRONAS, Scuderia Ferrari and Red Bull Racing all having problem free races.
The McLaren-Honda driver made a good start and avoided the incidents that compromised Carlos Sainz Jr and saw Nico Hülkenberg retire to run fifth, but was unable to keep either of the Ferrari drivers behind him, ultimately setting for seventh.
Despite finishing seventh, Alonso felt McLaren were not the fourth best team this weekend around the Marina Bay Street Circuit, so it was good to be able to beat the rest of the teams for that honour with good strategy calls.
“Seventh was the maximum we could achieve today – the best of the rest after the two Mercedes, the two Red Bulls and the two Ferraris,” said Alonso. “We weren’t perhaps quite the fourth-fastest team here this weekend, so it’s thanks to good strategy and a good start that we were able to bring home this result.
“I chose to go on the outside at the start, and the crash didn’t affect me as I was already up into sixth at that point. Then I braked very late for the first corner and got past Daniil [Kvyat] and Kimi [Raikkonen]. Everything went fine – sometimes you just need to get lucky.
“For a time, I was even hoping for a podium finish – if something had happened ahead of me it could have worked out that way – but in fact it was one of those races in which nothing happened at the front. But, overall, we did the best we could today.”
