Alonso praises Aston Martin's pace in Belgium

F1 Grand Prix, GP Belgium, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

Two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso was left buoyed by the performance of his Aston Martin AMR-24 at the Belgian Grand Prix after having endured a string of tough races in the past months.

Aston Martin opted to one-stop both their cars, and for Alonso that strategy worked. He came home in the points in ninth, but with the disqualification for George Russell, the two-time world champion moved up to eighth.

Alonso was pleased for taking some points in the last round before the summer break, but he has urges his team to find improvement for the second half of the season.

"I am pleased with eighth position today and four points after a hard-fought race. We had a few different strategies planned for today. We extended the first stint on the Mediums and then on the Hard tyres we managed the pace quite well and had decent tyre degradation.

"We thought there might be a chance of a Safety Car and when there wasn't we thought why not extend and remain on a one-stop strategy. This decision paid off and we managed to score some points.

"I am looking forward to a short break now and some time to recharge. We will continue fighting and we have some more work to do to improve for the second half of the season."

His team-mate Lance Stroll couldn’t follow Alosno home, losing out late on as his tyres ran out of life. He cut a frustrated figure on the radio as a result, lamenting the car’s set-up and so lack of straight line speed as well.

"It became clear during the race that the tyre degradation was lower than expected, so we elected to go for the one-stop strategy. We were running in P10 a few laps from the end of the race, but by that point I was struggling with the tyres and didn't have the speed to hold position.

"We were missing the pace we needed to fight for more today. As a team, I think we still have a lot of work to do to do catch back up to the top four teams."

Aston Martin's team boss Mike Krack insists that the Silverstone-based outfit is heading "in the right direction" after recent improvements.

"Four points following George Russell's disqualification and via a one-stop strategy for Fernando and the team was the best we could get today in Spa. We managed to make the one-stop strategy work for both drivers.

"Lance drove well but we weren't able to get him into a points-scoring position. The strategy worked together with the pit stops today and we've secured a small reward.

"We are moving in the right direction going into the summer break but there is still a lot to improve on in the second half of the season. Thank you to the entire team at the track and back at Silverstone who deserve a well-earned rest and then to come back fully recharged for Zandvoort with lots of opportunities ahead," said Krack.