‘We lost an opportunity’ – Alonso rues ‘very wrong’ strategy calls at Silverstone

Fernando Alonso expressed his frustration with a “disappointing race” at Silverstone, as the Spaniard rued Aston Martin's strategy calls despite coming home in the points.

Alonso started seventh on the grid and finished the British Grand Prix in ninth, with team mate Lance Stroll coming home in P7 to secure Aston Martin’s first double points haul of the year.

Despite starting down in 17th, Stroll managed to jump his team mate after changing to soft tyres in the period between the first Virtual Safety Car and the rain arriving – the Canadian making up a handful of places.

In the latter stages of the race Alonso also gambled, becoming the first to bolt on the medium tyres on a drying track. It appeared he had blinked a couple of laps early, and tiptoeing around cost him yet more time on his way to an eventual ninth.

“All the people we lose places to, they have worse tyres or we just lose places for fun?” Alonso had asked on the radio, while also saying “crazy how you never get it right with me".

“Quite disappointing race for us to be honest, starting P7, finish P9," Alonso said after the race. "It feels like we lost an opportunity to score more points but we got it wrong today, very wrong with the strategy and this can happen in a messy race.

“Last week, a one-stop in Austria was the right call to score more points than what we deserve probably and today we were a little unlucky so hopefully the next race we have an opportunity in mixed conditions, we get it right.”

Meanwhile Stroll scored six points in seventh place, but it could have been more for the Canadian – he was running third for much of the race, but dropped back late on thanks to high levels of tyre wear despite the cool conditions.

“The team made some good strategy calls during the race and overall, a good result,” Stroll said. “I really struggled with tyre degradation and unfortunately we weren't in a position where we could fight for more.

“[Nico] Hulkenberg had a lot more grip during that last stint and with the level of degradation we got the best possible result today."