Alonso insists 13th in qualifying is "nothing to celebrate"

Despite fears that McLaren-Honda could be among the bottom qualifiers, Alonso made it into Q2 quite comfortably and will start the race from the sixth row of the grid.

Although the Spaniard said he had managed to extract every bit of performance from his car, he conceded 13th on the grid was not what he wanted.

"I think I extracted the maximum from the car, so I'm happy in that sense. But probably there's nothing to celebrate being 13th," said Alonso.

"But we weren't sure where we were in terms of competitiveness and reliability. Reliability wise we have been able to run more or less without problems and now in qualifying we are 13th.

"We have to wait a few races to know where we really are, but there's a long way to go."

Alonso, whose team had struggled for mileage during winter testing, said the weekend had at least been less troubled than expected.

"Considering how we left Barcelona, where we couldn't run a lot and didn't know the car well, now we have been able to fine-tune the car and extract the best from it. So in that sense I'm happy.

"Like I said in Barcelona, I worked harder than ever this year. I arrived here earlier than ever. And today I'm a second in front of my teammate, so it's one of those weekends where you get everything right.

"But we are 13th and that's the sadness, for lack of a better word."

The two-time champion said a points finish on Sunday would not make a big difference for him, and acknowledged he will need the cars ahead to hit trouble if he is to finish in the top 10.

"It doesn't matter. Scoring one point, two, five, or being outside the points won't change much for me. I want to be on the podium, winning races, and we are not in that position.

"We will do our best tomorrow, but we need help from our rivals as we are not competitive enough to be in the points on merit."