Alonso: I did the best I could

The Renault driver, who benefited from his rivals' problems to finish in fourth place in Australia, was unable to repeat the feat and struggled for pace during the Sepang race.

He finished over a minute behind race winner Kimi Raikkonen.

"I did the best that I could today and I scored the final point," said Alonso. "We were able see that in normal race conditions we are a little far away in terms of performance.

"Our goal for the moment is to try and score points at each race and to work hard in the next tests so that we can perform better."

Teammate Nelsinho Piquet completed his first race distance, going on to finish in 11th place.

"I am happy to have finished the race as this was my first objective after the race in Melbourne," the Brazilian said. "I have learned a lot today and I recognise that the group we are fighting with is very competitive and that you have to drive the perfect race, but I finished close to my teammate and that is encouraging for me.

"The race was difficult and the car is still not competitive enough, but I am making progress and I hope to continue that at the next race in Bahrain."

Team boss Flavio Briatore said the point scored by Alonso was little consolation for the team's lack of pace.

"Unfortunately we did not make the most of the strong grid position with Fernando and this left us down the field, in spite of both Fernando and Nelson doing their best.

"The only point we bring home is no consolation and now we have to work hard to pinpoint our problems so that we can come back stronger in two weeks time in Bahrain."