Alonso: I said to myself I would go for it

The double Formula 1 Champion may have lucked into his fourth place qualifying result after a session that was cut short by the rain, but delivered a monumental effort on Sunday to deliver third place, masterfully defending from Perez in the faster Red Bull RB19.

The Mexican struggled to catch the Spaniard but made a pass with two laps to go, but the fight was far from over as the driver of the #14 AMR23 had other plans.

He kept his foot down, at his relentless best, and retook the place on the final lap and took the chequered flag 0.053s ahead of the #11 Red Bull.

Reflecting on his race in Aston Martin's race report, Alonso said: "For the last 30 laps, it felt like I had pressure from Sergio [Pérez].

"But when he passed me two laps from the end, I thought the chance of a podium finish was no longer possible. Then he braked a bit late into Turn One on the final lap, and I said to myself I would go for it into Turn Four," he explained.

This result comes after two tough races for Aston Marin who brought a major upgrade to their car in Austin and just couldn't make it work, and as a result reverted to an older spec car in Sao Paulo.

"This is a phenomenal result for the whole team," Alonso hailed. "We'd been struggling a little in recent races – especially the last two events – so this podium is for everyone at the track and everyone back at Silverstone.

"It shows that we will always keep fighting until the very last lap, the last corner," the 42-year-old concluded.

In the other Aston Martin, Lance Stroll had one of his better weekends, also lucking into a third place start on the grid after the rain-hit qualifying on Friday, but raced to a solid fifth.

Stroll lamented his bad starts on Sunday, the original one, and then the restart after the Red flag that was waved to clear the crash of Alex Albon got tangled up with the Haas' Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen.

"Neither of my starts were great," Stroll admitted. "I had a lot of wheelspin and very little traction, so I didn't get off the line well.

"But after that we had a lot of pace – quicker than Ferrari, quicker than Mercedes – and it felt like we were back to where we were at the beginning of the year.

"Today's result gives us the belief that we can go out and fight for points in these final two races," he maintained.

"Finally, a big shout out to the whole team – the last few races have been tough but today is a real reward and sends us home with smiles on our faces after three weeks on the road. I'm looking forward to Vegas!" the Canadian concluded.