McLaren-Honda's quasi home race will be a day to quickly forget for the entire Woking-based squad, its Japanese partner and Fernando Alonso.
Suzuka delivered a measly and highly disappointing 16th place finish for the Spaniard, two spots ahead of team mate Jenson Button, as both men were left battling a car with multiple weaknesses.
"To finish 16th and 18th today is a rather nasty surprise," commented Alonso, "especially after finishing seventh in Singapore, and seventh and ninth in Malaysia just last weekend.
"I hope this was an exceptional and unique event, and that we’ll return to business as usual at the next race, in Austin."
Alonso admitted his afternoon had not impacted by any particular set of circumstances, simply insisting that his car was simply not good enough.
"Nothing happened ahead of us but we weren’t very quick today either. We were too slow, not only today but the whole weekend, so we need to find the reasons.
"Five days ago we were 7th in Malaysia, fighting with Perez for P6 up to the last corner, and one week later we’re even behind Sauber…
The fact that the team's worst result this year came at Honda's home race only added insult to injury for Alonso.
"I’m a bit disappointed how the whole weekend went, especially as this is Honda’s home ground, but there’s nothing we could do.
"Now we have to find a better solution for Austin, another unique track, but we did well in Spa – Jenson got into Q3, I finished 7th in spite of my grid penalty – in Singapore and in Malaysia, so I don’t think what we saw here is the norm but rather the exception, just a weekend where things didn’t go our way."
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