Alonso blames lack of race pace

Alonso was optimistic of fighting for his first podium finish of the season after qualifying in third position, but the two-time champion had a poor race and had to settle for eighth place.

The Renault driver said his race pace was just not good enough.

"I don't think it (the strategy) was bad, but you need to have race pace and be able to run fast enough, otherwise it doesn't matter if you have a good or a bad strategy," Alonso told Spanish television.

"We were a second slower than our direct rivals and that's too much.

"We had a slower pace. The start was very bad. We couldn't find the right map for the start and I lost a few places. And then in the race we were not fast enough. The car was not as good as yesterday. Maybe the low temperature made the tyres not work as we wanted."

He added: "I knew this could happen. This is what racing is like. A podium finish was up to us, and if we did well we could have achieved it. We didn't do well and we didn't get it.

"We have to be optimistic yesterday and today we have to be realistic. We are fighting against cars that are very superior to ours and there's nothing to do."

Alonso lost seventh place to teammate Nelsinho Piquet on the final lap, when the Spaniard went wide at the Adelaide hairpin.

But the former world champion said he did not care much.

"The backmarker, a Force India, didn't see me and moved to the outside and I moved to the inside to avoid it and I overshot the corner. But one or two points won't change my life," he said.