Alonso bemoans 'painful weekend' for McLaren

Fernando Alonso says McLaren endured a painful weekend after finishing 13th in the Belgian Grand Prix.

Honda updated its power unit ahead of the race at Spa-Francorchamps, with motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai predicting it would result in a "big step" forward. However, McLaren was keen to play down its chances of a good result having opted to take a number of power unit penalties.

Having been uncompetitive all weekend and finished the race a lap down in 13th place, Alonso admits it was a difficult race to enjoy.

"It was unfortunately not a very interesting race in terms of fighting other cars," Alonso said. "But we did finish the cars and hopefully we got some information. But yeah – painful weekend."

And Alonso says he is preparing himself for a similarly difficult time at the Italian Grand Prix in two weeks.

"We were not competitive. We did a good start from P20 to P13 – that was the only joy probably, the first lap and the start. After that we dropped to our natural position and kept running there.

"Monza will be quite difficult, a tough weekend, but there will come some better races and we must maximise these opportunities."

Click here for Sunday's gallery of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. 

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

Recent Posts

Ferrari's Sainz 'not satisfied with where we are' in Vegas

It was a solid start to the Las Vegas weekend for Ferrari with Carlos Sainz…

11 mins ago

Norris labels McLaren long-run pace ‘shocking’ in chilly Vegas

Lando Norris didn’t hold back in his assessment of McLaren’s performance on the opening day…

1 hour ago

Hamilton delighted with ‘consistently strong day’ in Vegas

Lewis Hamilton was particularly happy with his opening day of running at the Las Vegas…

3 hours ago

Verstappen stuck with 'draggy' rear wing for Vegas

Red Bull fears that its prospects for this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix - which…

3 hours ago

Ferrari and Mercedes admit to plank changes based on FIA’s TD

Ferrari and Mercedes have both modified their car’s floor element in Las Vegas to comply…

4 hours ago

Las Vegas GP: Hamilton continues on top in second practice

Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes on top of the timesheets for the second time in Las…

5 hours ago