Alonso: Fifth a nice little present for the team

Compared to a number of teams McLaren had a quiet race today. In fact, they were so quiet Fernando Alonso got their best points of the season finishing in 5th, while Jenson Button came home for a double points finish. It was looking unlikely after qualifying when Button couldn’t make it out of Q1 and the car failed on Alonso in Q2 so couldn’t set a time.

“This was a very good race, and fifth position at the finish is a nice little present for the whole team, particularly as we’re not as competitive as we’d like right now,” said Alonso.

“On the calendar, there are a handful of circuits where we expected our performance to be better – Monaco, Singapore, and here in Hungary, so we knew we needed to make the most of today. Critically, we did just that: it was a chaotic race, and we took advantage of every opportunity that came our way.

“These points are a good way to send the whole team into the summer break, but we need to further maximise our chances in the second half of the season.

“This hasn’t been an easy weekend for anybody in Formula 1 – the minute’s silence for Jules [Bianchi] before the race was very emotional, and it was very tough to get in the cockpit straight afterwards.

“But, today, we respected Jules and we respected the sport.”

Jenson who finished the race in 9th, conceded that Fernando did a good job to get to 5th.

“Fernando did a great job today. Fitting the Option tyre for the final stint was the right decision for him; I didn’t stop for tyres under the Safety Car whereas pretty much everyone around me did. That decision made it very difficult for me, because my used Primes were pretty old by the end of the race, and there were plenty of faster cars around me running fresher Options.

“Still, it was a fun race, and it’s great to get points ahead of the summer break. The accidents and penalties certainly helped us, but we still did a good job out there today.

“This is a step forward for us, but we’ll need to take another step if we’re to repeat this sort of result. Equally, the next two races – at Spa and Monza – will probably be difficult for us, but it’s good to see we’re making progress.”

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