Alonso labels seventh place as a "small win"

Fernando Alonso has described his seventh place finish at the Singapore Grand Prix as a "small win" for McLaren. After qualifying, the Spaniard was hoping to make the best of his P11 starting position, which allowed him to start the race on the ultra soft tyre.

Alonso crossed the line behind the Mercedes', Ferraris and Red Bulls to score his highest finishing position since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix earlier this year. The double world champion hailed his team's strategy which allowed him to bring home six points.

“Really happy with seventh," he said. "Normally something happens in front of us, but today all top six cars finished the race so seventh is a small win for us. We executed the race to perfection today. Good strategy, good tyre selection and good points.

"We maximised the tyre advantage, starting on the ultra softs and then on the softs,” he continued. “I think the car was behaving very good and we are seventh, behind the top six, so a small win for us and a lot of points for the team and happy for that. Eventually we were the fastest car on track at some point, so that makes me happy at this difficult circuit.”

However, Alonso is not so confident that the Woking outfit will continue its strong pace going forward, believing that the final six races will produce "up and down" form.

“I think the car is exactly the same as previous,” he stated. “I think it’s just the track characteristics that are better for our package. I think it’s going to be up-and-down for the remaining races. Some of the races we may be competitive, some others maybe not so much. The target will be to keep scoring points on Sundays and help the team in the constructors’ championship.”