Alonso: I will finish the race for the mechanics

But the two-time Formula 1 world champion soldiered on as a gesture to his mechanics that rebuilt his AMR24 after his crash in qualifying in time for the race.

Despite his qualifying crash, Alonso managed to make it into the top three, ninth fastest with teammate Lance Stroll tenth.

However, the race was a different story, as his Aston Martin suffered from what can be called the "Mercedes syndrome". The AMR24 was a bouncing trap just like the W15 Lewis Hamilton and George Russell had to endure.

During the race and over the team radio, Alonso told his race engineer: "I will finish the race for the mechanics. They did a very good job today. But my back is hurting, man. This bouncing is not normal.”

"There was a lot of bouncing, a lot of porpoising in the second half of the race," he told the media later. "I don't know why, but it was a tough race. We were out of the points.

"I think in any other circumstances, probably I would have stopped. But the mechanics did an incredible job before the race to put the car ready on the grid, so I had to finish it for them."

Alonso revealed he was expecting the torture his car gave him during the Grand Prix and revealed he did some preparations for what was coming.

He said: "It was painful, for sure. The lead-up to this race, it was a lot of preparation from my side, a lot of checks, a lot of work, a lot of physio and doctors in order to come here in Brazil.

"So it was a lot of effort from everybody: the same effort as the mechanics put today. It was not comfortable in the car.

"But there are people worse than me, also in Valencia, we have these terrible images. And people struggling. So I had to struggle a couple of laps for everybody," Alonso added, referring to the floods hitting his home country, Spain.

Alonso finished 14th after also nursing a brake issue on his car, an issue he claimed might have been the cause of Stroll's crash on the formation lap.

He explained: "I think Lance had the brake problem in the formation lap, and I had the brake issue after all the restarts, where all the brake balance goes completely rearwards. It was like braking with a hand brake.

"So all in all it was a nightmare out there. We need to get better for the next three," Alonso concluded.