Fernando Alonso has praised his McLaren F1 Team for a “well-executed race” whilst also stating that his battle with Sebastian Vettel towards the end of the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix was not fair.
As was the case in the opening two races, Alonso and McLaren performed far better in the race than qualifying, with two-time world champion rising from thirteenth at the start to seventh by the finish to continue his points scoring run.
“Again, on Sundays we seem to deliver better than any other day, which is good as this is when points are given out,” said Alonso.
“It was a well-executed race from our side – P13 at the start and P11 after the first lap. The Safety Car didn’t play into our hands as we were on a one-stop strategy and we’d just pitted onto good, fresh tyres which were going to take us to the end, but the Safety Car gave everyone else the opportunity to pit.”
One of many highlights of the race saw Alonso fight wheel-to-wheel with Sebastian Vettel, with Alonso coming out on top after escorting the German wide at turn two. While the battle pleased many fans, Alonso didn’t see the fight with Vettel as a fair one.
“We had good battles with Haas and Ferrari, even though the latter wasn’t really a fair fight as Sebastian apparently had damage on his car and was struggling in the corners. We caught up with him, saw that the door was open in one corner, so we went for it.
“P7 is a great result for the team after a difficult weekend, but there’s no doubt that we have to improve. Our pace wasn’t there all weekend and we were still not fast enough in the race.
“It was great to see more people here in the grandstands than in previous years, thanks to the Chinese fans!”
