Alonso criticises standards

The Spaniard claims he was squeezed towards the pitwall at the start of the race by the Jaguar of Christian Klien and then had hectic battles with Felipe Massa and Mark Webber during the race. The second of which had the Spaniard incensed as the Australian appeared to brake test the Renault driver twice in consecutive laps.

"Quite honestly, I was very surprised by how some cars were being driven today: a Jaguar nearly put me in the wall at the start of the race, and then some other drivers were a little too difficult to overtake," said Alonso.

Alonso made life difficult for himself after an appalling qualifying lap brought on by a brake problem on the R23. He was then forced to pit at the end of the first lap to replace a broken front wing having run into the back of Klien. Nevertheless he knuckled down and produced some spectacular overtaking manouvres into the fast left/right esses en route to his three points.

"I did the maximum possible today," he said. "Given the weekend I have had, three points is still a good score for the championship. In reality, I started this race half a minute behind everybody else after my first stop, and just pushed all the way.

"The car balance was perfect all the way though. We have some performance evolutions coming at Imola, and I believe that with an even stronger package, and most importantly if we have some weekends without any problems, then we are capable of getting regular podium finishes."