- Monaco GP - Race
Fourth was the maximum possible - Alonso
Fernando Alonso thinks fourth is as high as he could have finished Monaco after overcoming MGU-K and brake issues at either end of the race to bring his Ferrari home 23 seconds off the podium.
Alonso lost out at the start to team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and spent the first lap fending off the cars behind him as his energy recovery unit took several corners to start working. Sebastian Vettel's retirement and Raikkonen's puncture after contact with Max Chilton brought Alonso back to fourth but he says he just did not have the pace to keep up with Daniel Ricciardo.
"No, I don't think so," Alonso said when asked if a podium was a possibility after Raikkonen and Vettel hit trouble. "We were not fast enough and we were fourth already, it's the maximum to be honest. The first three showed the potential and showed they were faster than me, they deserved to be there as they were uncatchable. Fourth is what it is and we will try to be closer to the podium in Canada.
"At the start [the Mercedes drivers] went away and Ricciardo was using a bit of a different strategy, he tried to go a bit slower at the beginning and faster at the end and both things worked quite well for them and he was out of reach today.
"At the end we had some brake problems; the car was only braking with the right brake so we had to hold the car to the left. When you are in that position in the middle of nowhere you just try to bring the car safe home and get these points but obviously we will try to do better next time."
Alonso admits he was initially concerned his first-lap issues might have forced him to retire.
"With the car there wasn't any big problem we just didn't have the pace to challenge the cars in front but had the pace to be in a good margin to the cars behind. Our only problems were the start where KERS didn't work, so I didn't have the power until going through Casino at Turn 3. The McLarens were fighting and also it's not completely a straight so I was lucky no-one else overtook me, and then suddenly the electric motor started working so that was good news.
"I had a good start, a good jump, but then I didn't have any more power to keep going and if I did have the power available I had to brake anyway because I didn't have space. I tried to go to the left at one point but Kimi was doing a good start so there was no place to go. I think it was actually more stressful after Turn 1. Between Turn 1 and Turn 3 I was very, very slow and I was a little bit worried about retiring."