Alonso claims Aston Martin's performance was a "nice surprise"

F1 Grand Prix, GP Hungary, Hungaroring

On the back of his best results of the season, two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso was left puzzled about Aston Martin's sudden upturn in performance following their disastrous showing at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Having missed the opening practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix due to back injuries, Fernando Alonso elected to take part in the remainder of the Budapest weekend despite his health issues.

The Spaniard delivered a sensational performance in qualifying to secure fifth place on the grid, having set a time that was just over a tenth slower than what pole-sitter Charles Leclerc managed.

The two-time world champion then had a great start and picked off the McLaren of Lando Norris. While he didn’t fight the McLaren man too hard when Norris flew back past after a few laps, the Spaniard concentrated on his own race. He deliberately held back his performance in the opening stages of the 70-lap race in a bid to save his tyres.

When he felt the need, Alonso unleashed his car's pace, and escaped from the Gabriel Bortoleto-led pack that he held up for the opening stages of the race. The Spaniard nursed his tyres perfectly, and executed a one-stop strategy to secure his best finish of the season with a fifth place.

His team-mate Lance Stroll also looked very competitive on Saturday, claiming sixth place on the grid. The Canadian lost a position to Bortoleto off the line, and was not able to recover it, but his seventh-place finish was still a great achievement.

Reflecting on his race in Mogyoród, Alonso stated: "Today's race went to plan for us and we maximised the performance of the car this weekend. It was a good job by everyone in the team and we are happy to have scored 16 points.

"We had some threats to deal with in the race, but we managed to keep them behind. The performance we've shown here has been a nice surprise, but we need to analyse everything from Spa and Budapest so we can better understand why we were much faster here in Hungary.

Pressed on to reveal whether he had expected the upturn in form after the disastrous weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, Alonso conceded: “It is a surprise, definitely. It’s a nice surprise. The good thing is that we were competitive and we were fast.

“The concerning thing is that we don’t know why. In a way, we need this week at the factory to analyse exactly what are the differences between Spa and Hungary, what are the differences on the car as well, on the setup, on the aero devices that we were racing with.

“The main thing for us was the front wing that was new this weekend. If that front wing gives us that much of performance, that’s very good news, but I think that has to be understood at the moment.”

Signing off with a word for his plans for the coming weeks, the Spaniard stated: "I will enjoy the short break now and I look forward to racing again in Zandvoort."

Having scored for the fourth time this season, his team-mate Lance Stroll reflected: "It was a great day for the team and a solid weekend from start to finish.

"Heading into the summer break with 16 points is a big uplift for us. But we have lots to learn from this weekend because we don't fully understand why we were more competitive here.

"We need to be in a place where we can put the car in that window at more tracks because ultimately, we want to be at this level of competitiveness more consistently. We'll see how we go in Zandvoort after the break because it's a very different kind of track," added the Canadian.