Alonso: Strong result unlikely even without Massa collision

The McLaren driver had been one of the stars of qualifying when he put his Honda-powered car seventh on the grid in his first appearance in Q3 this year.

But Alonso lost his chances of a good result when he made contact with Felipe Massa in Turn 2 at the start, going off track and losing several positions as a result.

The Spaniard, who secured his first race finish of the season, conceded that, given his car's top speed, it would have been hard to keep his position anyway.

"The cars in front were making contact and I took a risk," said Alonso of his start. "Maybe I could have stayed behind but I had nothing to lose so I tried to go around the outside, knowing that maybe he [Massa] wouldn't see me.

"But even without that I think that, with our speed on the straights sooner or later, you start to drop down. Your rivals prepare it little by little and at one point it's impossible to defend or impossible to attack.

"I'm happy with the weekend anyway. Yesterday I had a super lap. Today my car finished without major problems, so step by step."

Alonso said his chances took another hit when he emerged from his first pitstop behind the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat and could do nothing to overtake him.

"In terms of race pace we knew we couldn't match the cars in front and, even if we had it, we lost all our chances behind Kvyat after the pitstop," he said.

"We can't pass on the straight so we stayed behind him and from there the race was more complicated.

Despite having his first reliable race outing of the race, Alonso did not see it as a turning point in his season.

"The inflection point will come when Honda brings a powerful update. We are not bad with the chassis to be in Q3 and in the top 10 regularly. But we are lacking power and reliability.

"Hopefully reliability has improved seeing that the car finished perfectly. But let's hope things keep improving."