Alonso hails points in Belgium as ‘a bit of a win’ as Aston Martin aim to ‘come back stronger’ in second half of the season

Fernando Alonso was left satisfied with his P9 result – which later became P8 following George Russell’s post-race disqualification – in the Belgian Grand Prix, with the Spaniard crediting the team’s strategy call as helping to make it happen.

After starting from eighth place on the grid, Alonso extended his first stint on the medium tyre before pitting for the hard compound in his only pit stop of the race. This worked out well for the two-time world champion and he was pleased to claim points, despite the squad still being some way back from the leading four teams.

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“[I’m] happy with the result,” said Alonso. “I think the top four teams are out of reach, as we know, so ninth is like a bit of a win for us. Those two points are good.

“I think the pace was not great the whole race, but the team did a very good call on the strategy – only one stop, same as Russell, and it was the strategy to follow this year and, yeah, we took these points.”

With F1 now embarking on its traditional summer break, Alonso is hopeful that he and the team can take the opportunity to recharge and return in better form for the second half of the season.

“I think the last six weeks were intense,” the 43-year-old commented. “We had five races, we had the Goodwood Festival in the middle as well, so six consecutive weekends.

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“Definitely we need a break, especially the mechanics, everyone travelling [for the] back-to-back races. It’s good to have a break now. It’s going to be a demanding second part of the year – hopefully we can take some lessons from this last couple of races and come back stronger.”

On the other side of the Aston Martin garage, Lance Stroll also opted for the one-stop strategy but this did not work out as favourably, with the Canadian’s tyres dropping off as the race progressed. He eventually crossed the line in P12 which later became P11.

“No points but, yeah, I’d expected to go to the one-stop strategy,” Stroll explained after the Grand Prix. “It was lower deg than expected so we hung on for the one-stop and that was our race.

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“We need to find some more pace in the car to fight further up the grid. The straight-line speed was an issue for us, getting overtaken. We were just struggling with straight-line speed all day, so something to work on.”