Fernando Alonso admits points were a “nice reward” as the McLaren F1 Team driver recovered from starting in the pitlane to finish eighth.
The Spaniard was forced to start from the pitlane after making changes to his McLaren after qualifying and was very happy to score points at the Red Bull Ring but admitted it was a strange race.
“I’m very happy – we didn’t expect points today, so that was a very nice surprise.
“It was a strange race. I started from the pit-lane, was then running 19th after the first laps, then I got stuck behind a group of cars and wasn’t able to run at my proper pace.
“Also, the front wing we ran was last year’s, so we didn’t know exactly how it would behave with the rest of the aero package.”
The track was hotter than it had been all weekend and caused many drivers unexpected problems with tyres but Alonso was able to use that to his advantage.
“The race was quite chaotic: the hot track temperatures caused a lot of blistering for everybody, but I was able to take care of them and capitalise on that.”
Austria was the first points finish for McLaren since the Spanish Grand Prix and Alonso knows that they need to keep improving with their home race coming up next.
“The points were a nice reward, but we need to keep improving.
“The next race is our home grand prix and we need to be more competitive there.”
