Budkowski: 'The heart-warming positive was some Fernando magic'

Alpine's Executive Director Marcin Budkowski praised Fernando Alonso for his performance in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after Esteban Ocon had to retire early due to power unit issues. The Spaniard finished in sixth and claimed eight points for the French team.

In the press release from the team, Budkowski explained how despite Alonso's strong performance, the Sunday performance wasn't seen as a strong one.

“Overall it wasn’t a great afternoon but we can be glad that the two drivers who had issues were fine and it did give us some exciting action after the restart.

"The heart-warming positive was some Fernando magic to regain four positions and finish P6, which is a great reward for everyone’s hard work. He’s back in a very competitive state and we now need to work together to get back on form at the next race in France.”

Alonso content with performance

Alonso himself explained how a lack of pace was on show at certain points but was very happy with a strong points-scoring finish.

“I am happy for the team that we took some good points from this weekend, I felt we deserved it after a challenging weekend. The final laps were a lot of fun and we tried to attack and be aggressive to recover some places.

"The weekend was quite solid for us but we did lack a little bit of pace during the race. So we need to review that but I am happy with the day in the end and we’ll look to take this forward into France.”