McLaren driver Fernando Alonso had a brilliant Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon, the Spanish driver racing his heart out to finish in 8th place overall.
For the majority of the race Fernando was on the gearbox of Williams driver and former teammate at Ferrari, Felipe Massa, making the best use of the DRS behind the Brazilian to keep up the much needed pace.
Starting from sixth, Fernando was overtaken by the Brazilian on lap six. He settled down in hot pursuit of the Williams driver, and only lost positions to the faster cars of Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo before he reached the chequer.
After making his sole stop of the race on lap 28, Fernando really put the hammer down to close a 2.8s gap to Felipe. For the remaining 41 laps, he pushed relentlessly, closing the gap down to 0.4s by the chequer. While his bid was ultimately unsuccessful, it was supremely spectacular.
“Overall, it's been a happy Brazilian GP for us. We started sixth, at the first corner we were up to fifth, and then we finished in the points – one of our best weekends,” he said.
“I had a fantastic car throughout the whole race, but, ultimately, I just could not overtake. We didn't have enough speed on the straights. I was very, very close to Felipe a couple of times at the exit of the corners, and I thought ‘now is the time I can pass him,' but even though I was using the DRS, he was pulling away.”
“He was very consistent and made zero mistakes. Also, being the last lap of Felipe's last-ever F1 race in Brazil, I wasn't sure how hard he would defend! I didn't have a chance to overtake him, anyway. And I had to defend from Perez behind, so I was happy when I saw the chequered flag.”
