• Turkish Grand Prix

Alonso 'enjoyed racing again'

Fernando Alonso stood on the podium for the first time this season © Sutton Images

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• Report:
• Vettel leads Red Bull one-two in Turkey
  

• Race:
• Turkish Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso

• Teams:
• Ferrari

Fernando Alonso said that Ferrari 'enjoyed racing again' after finishing third and battling with Mark Webber throughout the Turkish Grand Prix.

After a difficult start to the season Alonso was much closer to the pace in Istanbul, eventually finishing the race just ten seconds behind winner Sebastian Vettel. Alonso said that he was pleased with the way the car was handling throughout the weekend and that it was good to be fighting at the front once again.

"We did a good weekend overall. The car performed a bit better than what we did in the first three races of the championship so finally we enjoyed racing again and we enjoyed a race fighting for the podium positions and changing second and third positions through the race."

Although he was able to match leader Vettel's pace for most of the race, Alonso said that being stuck behind Nico Rosberg in the first stint prevented the team from having any designs on winning, and that his battle with Webber ebbed and flowed with tyre performance.

"We lost a little bit of time behind Rosberg at the beginning of the race so we felt [that we lost] the possibility of fighting with Sebastian for P1, [so] we concentrated on P2. I had a little bit of an advantage in terms of tyre degradation maybe at that part of the race compared to Mark, and as Mark said we used the DRS and I was able to overtake him. Then in the last part of the race it was more or less the opposite, we had maybe a little bit of a disadvantage with tyre age and we lost the position again. But it was OK, I think fighting with Red Bull these days is quite difficult and we were close so hopefully next time we try again."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.