Alonso still eyeing podiums, victory

The Renault driver was set for sixth position but moved up a place after Lewis Hamilton crashed his McLaren on the penultimate lap of the race.

Alonso's result equaled his best of the season so far, but he insists Renault must aim for the top three in the remaining four races.

"I'm very happy with the result today, although at the start the KERS did not meet my expectations," said the Spaniard. "In the race I had good pace, the car behaved perfectly and our strategy worked well.

"Finishing in fifth position is a good result, but the objective for the rest of the season is a podium or even a victory."

Team-mate Romain Grosjean finished the race in 15th position after having to deal with a damaged car for most of the event.

"I'm very disappointed with today's race," he said. "My start was very poor and I need to try and understand why. I had some contact in the first chicane and so the car was damaged for the rest of my race, which made things difficult and impossible to score any points.

"The challenge now is to continue to progress and try to get closer to Fernando in qualifying."