Alonso: There was no chance to win, wet or dry

Fernando Alonso's 33rd Formula 1 victory will have to wait a bit more, as he fell short of achieving it on Sunday in Monaco despite driving brilliantly all weekend, pushing Verstappen hard and making himself a strong contender for top honors around the streets of the principality.

With Alonso starting his race on the Hard tyres, compared to Verstappen on Mediums, Aston Martin were playing the long game, homing the Dutchman would pit earlier and they can jump him after the pitstops.

But Verstappen held on until the rain came, and then Aston Martin made the mistake of boxing Alonso and bolting on slick tyres instead of the Intermediates, and error in judgement by team and driver, that made all their chances of winning the race evaporate, Verstappen trotting to his fourth victory in 2023.

Alonso defended the decisions made on the Green pit wall on Sunday in Monaco, admitting the win was never on the cards.

"I'm really happy with this result," he said in Aston Martin's post race brief. "The race was not easy, and the rain made it difficult for everybody, and very risky strategically.

"I don't think the extra stop [first Mediums, then Intermediates] affected the result. It's always hard to read the race fully from the cockpit, but on the lap I stopped, the track was completely dry apart from Turns Seven and Eight – so why fit Inters, especially when it felt like a small shower and we had plenty of margin behind us?" the Spaniard reasoned.

"So it was the right decision, and extra safe: but a minute and a half later it was a completely different situation!"

The 41-year-old added: "There was no chance to win today – wet or dry, but we raced aggressively and tried to win it. We were hoping Max [Verstappen] would suffer greater degradation on the Mediums, but he did 50 laps at an amazing pace.

"But we're getting closer – let's not forget that. Now to Spain!", Alonso concluded, looking ahead to Barcelona, the venue of his last F1 victory as a Ferrari driver in 2013.

Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack added: "Starting from the front row and finishing second with Fernando in the Monaco Grand Prix is a tremendous result for the whole team – and a significant marker for how far we've travelled together."

As for the team's wrong pit stop call; Krack said: "That made no difference to the result – we wouldn't have caught Max anyway.

"Fernando drove magnificently in treacherous conditions to equal AMF1 Team's best-ever result – bravo," he concluded.