Alonso believes Alpine is "best team" in midfield despite slower car

Fernando Alonso has backed Alpine as the "best team" in the midfield despite not having the fastest car.

Alpine started the season slowly but has built consistently into a points-scoring outfit, with Esteban Ocon's victory in Hungary providing a well-needed boost in the race for fifth place.

The team's points tally of 95 is 11 more than AlphaTauri in sixth, whilst Aston Martin sits 36 points back in seventh.

Asked what could be expected from Alpine in the coming rounds, Alonso replied: "I think there is going to be ups and downs for everybody.

"In the triple header, we are up and down in the level of competitiveness and in the grid order.

"In Spa we were ok on the dry, not ok on the wet. In Zandvoort we were ok all weekend, [Monza] we were not. I think it is track dependent.

"I don't know exactly in Russia, Turkey and Austin how it is going to be. I think it will be better.

A double top 10 in Italy was a welcome surprise for Alonso and cited the team's ability to secure results despite not having the fastest car as a reason to be optimistic coming to the end of the season.

"Monza was already in the calendar as one of the worst, we knew that. Let's see what we can do. In one of the worst weekends potentially, we finished [P8] and P9.

"That is something that is our strength as a team, to score points every Sunday. We don't have the fastest car in the midfield but we seem to have the best team in the midfield. That allowed us to score points very Sunday."

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