Alonso: P7 'a small win' for McLaren in Singapore

Fernando Alonso felt his charge to seventh place in Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix was "a small win" for McLaren after picking up the team's best Formula 1 result since the end of April.

After qualifying 11th, Alonso was the leading driver on the grid to start on Ultrasoft tyres, allowing him to get the jump on the midfield runners who had to start on Hypersofts, with their early pit stops causing them to lose time in traffic.

Alonso made a long first stint on the Ultrasofts work, rising to seventh place and retaining his position after pitting, with the Spaniard eventually crossing the line 20 seconds clear of Carlos Sainz Jr. in P8.

It marked McLaren's best result since Alonso finished seventh in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix - round four of the season.

"Really happy with seventh. Normally something happens in front of us, but today all six cars finished, so P7 is a small win for us," Alonso said after the race.

"We executed the race to perfection today. Good strategy, tyre selection, and good points.

"We still had to open some gaps in case of safety cars and things like that. We didn’t know when people behind us could stop, so we were opening the gap.

"It was a race, even if we were alone we were controlling some of the gaps in front and behind. It was not that boring."

Asked if he felt this was a sign of progress for McLaren, Alonso put the team's good form in Singapore more down to the characteristics of the Marina Bay circuit as opposed to the team's own car.

"The car is exactly the same as previous. So, it is just track characteristics that are better for our package," Alonso said.

"It is going to up and down for the remaining races. Some of the races maybe we are competitive, some others maybe not so much.

"But the target will be to keep scoring points and help the team in the constructors’ championship."