Fernando Alonso took the honour of making up the most places at the Austrian GP, as he claimed an eighth-place finish after starting from the pit-lane.
McLaren elected to take the Spaniard’s car out of parc ferme following qualifying, fitting a new MGU-K as well as other new parts in the hope of making progress in the race.
Initially, the situation looked bleak running at the back, with Alonso calling for strategy options to be considered to try and make up some places and it would work as he passed seemingly his arch nemesis this season Charles Leclerc en route to his first points since Spain.
“I’m very happy,” he said afterwards. “We didn’t expect points today, so that was a very nice surprise.
“It was a strange race. I started from the pit-lane, was then running 19th after the first laps, then I got stuck behind a group of cars and wasn’t able to run at my proper pace.
“Also, the front wing we ran was last year’s, so we didn’t know exactly how it would behave with the rest of the aero package.”
The determining factor though would be his ability to watch the tyres, as the double world champion didn’t suffer the problems that several ahead did, allowing him to gain more places.
“The race was quite chaotic,” he admitted. “The hot track temperatures caused a lot of blistering for everybody, but I was able to take care of them and capitalise on that.
“The points were a nice reward, but we need to keep improving. The next race is our home Grand Prix and we need to be more competitive there.”
