Alonso welcomes points finish

The Renault driver lost several positions at the first corner, where he was pushed off and had to run through the gravel in order to return to the track.

But thanks to the safety car periods and the retirements in front, Alonso finished in sixth, which then became fifth when Jarno Trulli was penalised.

"Sixth place is not the best result, but in a way we have to be happy because we started the race in a difficult position and I was pushed wide at turn 1 onto the grass and so I dropped to the back of the pack," said Alonso.

"After that, it was difficult and so it's great to score points. With what happened during the race, the incidents and the safety car, we managed to finish sixth.

"In terms of the overall results and looking at our competitors, we have to be happy with the result," added the Spaniard, who admitted was disappointed with the performance of the KERS system.

"With the KERS I didn't feel a big difference and I was a little bit disappointed at how it worked. We also need to work on the tyres a bit more at the next race," he said.

Nelson Piquet spun out of the race after the first restart when he was in a strong position after surviving the first corner chaos.

"I was really happy because we were lucky at the beginning of the race to gain some positions," said Piquet. "The car was good and I was having a consistent drive. But when the safety car came out I started to have some problems with the brakes.

"I had a good restart and overtook Nico Rosberg, but when I touched the brakes again they were gone. I spun out and I was lucky I ended up in the gravel, so there was no damage to myself or the car.

"The car was not as competitive as we wanted it to be in the race but we were still running in the top 8. The Malaysian circuit should suit us better and I'm sure that we can get a good result there next week."