Fernando Alonso Quietly Overachieves at F1 Singapore Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso has rarely been one to shy away from self-congratulations but the Spaniard once more impressed in Singapore.

On a weekend in which lackluster teammate Lance Stroll was nowhere, Alonso claimed Aston Martin had a car possibly as bad as second-worst, in which he qualified seventh and raced to eighth.

“Today, finishing eighth is a bit better than our best dreams. So, again, good points, but still one lap behind and not great pace, difficult car to drive the whole weekend,” he said. “I mean, I think we [Aston Martin] should be 15th and 16th.”

It was Alonso’s fourth top 10 finish in the last five Grands Prix and he has now scored 62 of Aston Martin’s 86 points this season.

Team principal Mike Krack also lavished praise on Alonso, saying: “None of our simulations were predicting we could finish where we finished.”

Aston Martin is on course to take back-to-back fifth-place finishes in the F1 Constructors' Championship, but this year has been much poorer, having never been part of the front-running podium-contending pack.

“We should not go into full destruction mode as a team, yeah, but we have to make sure that the positive results we are accumulating are not hiding from the facts we have to improve, or that we are not where we wanted to be, and that is critical as a whole team,” Krack said.