Alonso: We are going to get better and better

Fernando Alonso declared himself pleased with McLaren's performance in the Australian Grand Prix, after his superb P5 and team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne also able to finish in the points, a race in which Sebastian Vettel took the chequred flag.

McLaren were expected to go faster this season after years of being off the pace, and they met that target early with Alonso's superb drive holding off Max Verstappen for much of the race.

Alonso stated that the car performance was in line with what he expected, and that he fully expects the car to improve as the season progresses.

He said post-race: "I think it was more or less expected we knew we had strong race pace, better than qualifying.

"We capitalised on problems that others had and we had an attack from Verstappen over 20 laps and could defend. I'm happy.

" [It is] great work by the team, with the integration of the power unit. We redesigned the car and now we're here both cars in the points. It's a good starting point.

"It's going to be better and better, there's a lot of potential in the car to be unlocked. It's the first race of McLaren-Renault and hopefully from Bahrain we'll step forward again and Red Bull are the next target."