Alonso analyses McLaren updates

Fernando Alonso believes McLaren's updates in Spain have put them in a better position.

Alonso set McLaren's fastest qualifying time of the season in Q3, and finished Sunday's race in 8th.

"We knew the upgrades put us in a better position in the midfield pack," he said

"I think we caught up with Renault and Haas.

"But the top three teams are still developing their cars at the same rate we do so we keep that gap unfortunately."

Alonso, who overtook Sauber's Charles Leclerc, started the race on Pirelli's fastest tyres.

"We had the plan beforehand which was overtaking cars at the start because we started on the supersofts so we knew we had to stop quite early," he said.

"But we found that we lost positions and then we were in the middle of the Turn Two incident so I thought points were impossible today. I'm happy with eighth."