Alonso satisfied despite no win

The Spaniard finished behind teammate Lewis Hamilton, who took his second straight win to increase his championship lead to ten points over Alonso.

Alonso's result, however, was his best at Indianapolis and also his first podium at the American track after years of frustrating races.

The two-time champion tried hard to move ahead of his teammate, but eventually had to settle for second, less than two seconds behind Hamilton.

"It was really close," said Alonso. "I think at the start also was very close but I didn't manage to overtake Lewis and from then on, when you follow someone you lose a little bit of downforce and it's difficult to build the tyres condition during the stint, you maybe damage yours tyres more running behind someone.

"I tried in the middle stint, I was side-by-side once, but it was not enough to overtake him. And the last stint was maybe a conservative one, it was very difficult to overtake. We'll start thinking about the French Grand Prix.

"Eight points are better than nothing. We increased the gap to Ferrari which is one of main things in this part of championships."

Alonso believes the start was the key moment of the race, and although he tried his best, the Spaniard was unable to move ahead of his teammate.

"It is so difficult to run behind anyone here. On the main straight it helps, you can gain one or two tenths, but in the rest of the corners you lose so much downforce, so much time. This race I think the start was the key point of the race.

"The start was good, but I think we both braked more or less in the same point and the start is always risky. I remember Canada going off on the grass and losing one position, it was with my teammate, you try to overtake but what you don't want is to end race in first corner."