Alonso surprised to reap more points for McLaren in Austria

The signs and portents for McLaren heading into Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix had been far from promising. The team had gone through a number of bodywork components because of damage during practice and qualifying, and Fernando Alonso was having to start from pit lane following the latest repairs.

One lap into the race and he was joined at the back of the field by his team mate Stoffel Vandoorne, who had tangled with a Toro Rosso at the start and then suffered a slow stop after pitting for a new front wing.

It could hardly have been a worse start for the pair. But for Alonso at least things got rapidly better from there, and he went on to finish the race in eighth place and pick up four more championship points for the team.

“I’m very happy," he said afterwards. "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 race was quite chaotic," he continued. "The hot track temperatures caused a lot of blistering for everybody, but I was able to take care of them and capitalise on that.

“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.”

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“Fernando’s eighth-place finish was a fine example of his determination and never-say-die attitude," said McLaren racing director Eric Boullier.

"At the start of the race, when he was sat in his car in the garage, a points finish certainly didn’t look likely," he admitted. "But he drove superbly, looked after his tyres, and really put the hammer down when it was critical.

"His pursuit and pass of Charles Leclerc also shows there’s a bit more pace in the car on a Sunday than is usually evident on a Saturday. We’ll keep working to further unlock that."

Unfortunately things didn't go so well for Vandoorne, whose car was carrying damage from that first lap incident. He ended up retiring from the race in the closing laps.

“It was a normal racing incident on lap 1," he explained. "[Going] into turn 3, there were three or four cars side by side, and that corner closes up at the apex and the exit. There was no way to avoid contact, unfortunately.

“After pitting for a new nose, I came back out in traffic, getting blue flags straight away as the leaders went past me. It was very frustrating to have to let all the cars through.

“Towards the end, I got some clear laps and managed to overtake some cars again. There was some pace in the car – if you look at the lap-times, we were much more competitive today than we were in qualifying. That’s a plus.

“The team getting another few points is another positive to take away from a difficult weekend.”

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