Fernando Alonso has clarified that his radio message to the team, in which he asked if he could "stop now" wasn't an attempt to retire the car early, but a call to pit for fresh tyres.
The Spaniard was lapping in 12th – a lap down on the leaders – and was heard over his radio asking: "Can I stop now?" However, whilst many assumed Alonso was asking to end his race, after his engineer replied: "No, we want to get a point if anything happens", he was in fact requesting a stop for new tyres.
"I enquired about the possibility of fitting fresh tyres for the last few laps, but I guess it was a little too much of a risk: at that point we were 11th (he was actually 12th, but finished 11th) and stood to score a point or two at the end if something were to have happened ahead of us.
"Still, I’d done more than 50 laps on those tyres – and the two-stoppers were a lot faster than me. I guess we were a bit unlucky – we really needed some rain or a Safety Car to put us back in the fight."
Although believing his strategy was the optimal way to go, Alonso admitted there simply wasn't enough pace in the car to secure a top ten finish.
"A tough race – we didn’t have the pace to be competitive today," he added. "Ultimately, I think our strategy was the right one – it was the quickest way home.
"Anyway, we’ll now work hard to try to improve the pace for the next race."
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