Australian Grand Prix – Fernando Alonso believes McLaren’s pace at the season opener was a one-off performance.
Alonso surprised in qualifying with 13th and was running in tenth for the majority of the race before retiring from the race with a handful of laps remaining. The Spaniard still believes McLaren are at the back of the grid, however.
“I think we are last. That’s the performance we are at now,” he said.
“We were tenth because the qualifying lap yesterday was extremely good. I was lucky at the start to gain one positon and Grosjean’s retirement gave us the second one.
“I think in normal conditions we should be last.”
Alonso was able to fend of Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg for that tenth spot before both drivers came past with a pass into Turn 1 in the closing .Sp5rl!47rs of the race, but Alonso added he was surprised by such a performance.
“It was a suspension failure at the end that stopped us finishing the race,” he commented.
“I was having one of my best races so far and we were, surprisingly, in the points all race long. We also had to do huge fuel saving that was hurting us a lot but we were able to keep the position.
“It is a surprise to be so far up but at the end of the day we didn’t finish and definitely we need to be more competitive very soon.”
