Alonso rues 'big' strategy mistake

The Spaniard, who had qualified in a strong fourth, pitted for the first time when the safety car was deployed on lap 20 and later found himself stuck behind BMW's Nick Heidfeld, who had already made his only stop and was running slower than Alonso.

The Renault driver said he had enough fuel to complete another seven laps before his pitstop and he reckons he would have been better off not stopping during the safety car period.

Alonso tried hard to overtake Heidfeld for several laps, but eventually ended up spinning off the race while running in third.

The two-time champion said, however, that his position was not realistic and claimed he was looking set to finish outside the top eighth.

"We made a terrible mistake with the strategy when we stopped with the safety car on track," he said. "We had some six or seven laps, which is what Heidfeld ran to emerge ahead of us.

"When I went off it's true that I was third, but it was misleading, because there were people behind me who didn't have to stop. They told I would have been eighth or ninth after the second stop, and that means I would have been outside the points so that's not good."

He added: "If we had stayed on track we would have been in front of Heidfeld and in front of Kubica too, and with a chance of scoring a podium for sure."

Alonso lost the back of his car on lap 42, before making contact with the wall.

"I tried to change the line to overtake Heidfeld," he said. "I was outside the points and I tried to do everything I could, but I went on the dirty side and I went off.

"These things happen in racing and it's better that it happens this season, but (the strategy) was a big mistake."