Fernando Alonso earned a valuable sixth place for his Aston Martin Formula 1 team on an “opportunistic Sunday” in Baku having taking advantage of the late collision between Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz.
The Spaniard had already put himself in the best of the rest position in eighth behind seven cars from the top four teams, with Lewis Hamilton still catching up having started from the pitlane.
It was Aston’s best result since Alonso finished sixth at Montreal in June.
“Yeah, definitely quite happy,” he said when asked by formu1a.uno about his race. “Obviously, on a normal weekend, only ninth and 10th is available for the midfield teams.
“And today, thanks to some action in front of us, sixth was available, and we were there to take it. So yeah, an opportunistic Sunday for us, a lot of points. So happy for the team.”
Alonso was the second driver to change tyres, coming in on lap 11 in response to Franco Colapinto pitting. That left him with a 40-lap stint to the flag on the hards.
“We were flexible today, one or two stops were still working for us,” he said. “So we followed more or less the trend, and whatever the people around us were doing, we copy and mirror the strategy.
“And yeah, it was the good one at the end. We were able to maintain the position with Franco, Alex and Nico at one point. So yeah, a tough race. Obviously, no time to relax, but in a way, well-executed.
“Good pit stops with the strategy, good tyre deg. Maybe not super pace this weekend, but we’re still executing the race well enough to score a lot of points. So happy for the team.”
He added: ”I think very similar to Monza. I think the level of risk and precision that you have to apply in a race like today is outstanding, let’s say, for everybody, all 20 drivers, I think, with a low level of grip.
“I think we were driving close to 100% every lap. So it was very impressive that no safety car, no accident happened in the race. It was no different for us.
“Obviously, Monza, P11, not really any prize from that race, and here a lot of points, so one compensates the other. And this is very typical in F1.”
Alonso opted for a low downforce spec that gave him speed on the straight, and he said it worked out well for him, despite the extra stress put on the tyres by sliding.
“I think we had more deg than we anticipated, and that we would love to, but the top speed was definitely a help today,” he said.
“Some moments that they were close behind I saw in the straight they were not even catching with the DRS, so I was a little bit more relaxed than other races.”
Alonso concedes that Aston still has to find more speed even to compete with the midfield group.
“I think Williams and Haas generally they’ve been quicker the last three events,”he said. “I would say. Kevin [Magnussen] in Monza was outstandingly quick and fast, even with a 10-second penalty he finished in front of us.
“So there are a couple of races that we fall behind, and we want to reverse this, and we want to become the fifth fastest team as soon as possible. So yes, Singapore another opportunity.”