Pit lane to P8, Alonso ‘delivered the goods’

Fernando Alonso says he “delivered the goods” for McLaren in Austria as he raced his way from the pit lane to eighth place at the chequered flag.
Although the double World Champion made it into Q2 at the Red Bull Ring, he found himself starting from the pit lane after breaking parc ferme rules.
McLaren were forced to change Alonso’s front wing which had been broken in qualifying and, as they had to go onto a different spec wing, he had to start from the pit lane.
Despite that, and reports that it was the old wing that he had to run, Alonso raced his way into the points.
“Completely unexpected, from the pit lane to P8 is definitely great,” Alonso said.
“In the beginning of the race we were behind a group of cars and we were not able to show our pace.
“In the second part, a lot of people suffered blisters on the rear tyres, and we didn’t, so we had a pace advantage and we maximised that potential.
“So I’m happy with P8, and now we go to Silverstone, our home grand prix. We definitely need to deliver a better performance there and hopefully score more points.”
He added: “I delivered the goods, as I said to the team on the radio. We started the race targeting a points finish and I delivered them.”