Fernando Alonso welcomed his 8th place finish at the Austrian Grand Prix. The Spaniard looked unlikely for any points in the early stages but in typical fashion he didn't give up and fought back well to finish well in the points.
"It's completely unexpected, to go from the pit lane to P8 is definitely great," he said afterwards.
"In the beginning of the race we were behind a group of cars and we were not able to show our pace. In the second part, a lot of people suffered blisters on their rear tyres, and we didn’t, so we had a pace advantage and we maximised that potential. So I’m happy with P8.
"It was a surprise today with the hotter track temperature, so the blisters became a problem. We suffered them in the first part with the red tyres, so on the yellow tyres we tried to take care as much as we could in the beginning of the stint. Even with that, it was difficult to manage and finish the race."
Alonso's race started poorly after an early stop left him 19th place, saved from last position by teammate Stoffel Vandoorne. Alonso recovered well and fought back through the field, a great battle with Charles Leclerc one of the highlights.
Points for him might not be good enough for him to stick around though, rumours picked up this weekend that there could be a sensational return to Renault for him on the cards. Whether or not he continues in F1 only time will tell, his ambitions for the Triple Crown well documented already.
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