Aston Martin's lacklustre form of late continued in Hungary last weekend, confirming the team's fifth position in F1's pecking order according to Fernando Alonso.
Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll rounded off the top-ten at the Hungaroring after a relatively uneventful afternoon.
And the Spaniard believed that ninth and tenth was the maximum Aston could achieve, a result that followed Alonso's run to P7 at the previous race at Silverstone.
"Yeah, we were not quick enough to challenge anyone in front and we did not have anyone behind, three points, nine and tenth, maximum today, so let’s see next week," he said.
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After Aston's remarkable entry into the 2023 season, with Alonso claiming six podiums in the first eight races, the team's AMR23 has visibily regressed relative to its direct rivals.
"I think the last two races we struggle a bit," commented Alonso. "At Silverstone, the Safety Car helped a bit to finish seventh, which was better than our pace.
"Today ninth is probably our pace, yep, behind the Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, which is more or less what we saw in qualifying and the race."
Behind the dominant Red Bull squad, the spread has been incredibly tight among the bulls' pursuers, with teams jockeying for position amid a running order on Sunday that varies from race to race, while in qualifying the odd outsider also often upsets the mix.
Alonso is hoping that Aston Martin can reestablish itself at the front of the pack in the back-half of the season.
"I mean every race we will love to understand and we will have many questions and we never know exactly what is the cause of it," he said, referring to the fluctuations.
"Austria, Hulkenberg was fourth after qualifying, so we were all surprises. Silverstone, Williams were very fast and we were surprised, here Alfa Romeo was very fast, we were all surprised.
"Then normally in the race everything balances out and the big teams they finish in front. We are just in the back end of those top teams so we need to get back to the front end of that group."
Ahead of next weekend's Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, Aston Martin now sits third, 39 points behind Mercedes in F1's Constructors' standings, with Ferrari just 17 points behind.
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