Alonso thought waving Verstappen was tricking him

Fernando Alonso thought Max Verstappen was attempting to trick him into receiving a penalty when the Red Bull man waved him through under the safety car at the Australian Grand Prix. Verstappen was deemed to have overtaken the McLaren under yellow flags, but the situation was far from clear.

As Alonso left the pits, Verstappen came around the outside to over take him for fifth position, but replays later showed Alonso was fractionally ahead - by just 10 seconds, race director Charlie Whiting confirmed.

Verstappen remained ahead for a while Whiting decided which course of action to take, but the Dutchman took matters into his own hands, pulling over and waving Alonso through, although the veteran was not immediately willing.

"I thought I had the position there, I asked the team to check that," Alonso told Channel 4.

"At one point I saw Max waving and letting me go, but I said 'maybe it's a trick, I will not go'.

Holds off Verstappen, claims best finish since the 2016 US Grand Prix - reasons to be cheerful for @alo_oficial #AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/EDX2ff2c4y — Formula 1 (@F1) March 25, 2018

"I asked the team for confirmation three times that I could go in front of him. When they confirmed I went in front.

"It was tough. You don't want Max Verstappen 20 laps behind you and we were lucky - zero mistakes - and took fifth position."

Asked if he perhaps didn't trust his fellow drivers, a grinning Alonso replied: "No, especially Max! He's a very aggressive man in overtaking moves and these little tricks. It's better to confirm."

Alonso ultimtely held off Verstappen to finish fifth, with team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne coming home ninth.

The double points finish for McLaren was aided by Haas' double DNF, as well as Verstappen spinning when he was chasing Kevin Magnussen early in the race.

Regardless, Alonso believes McLaren can be major players in the second half of the season, pointing to a couple of recent examples to follow.

"It's a long season, 21 races, and we scored good points. We need to bring updates to catch the top guys, we will need to do something special, clever ideas, because the gap is difficult to close.

"We need to be consistent and score points every race. I remember 2008, with Renault in the second half of the season I scored more points than the world champion [Lewis Hamilton].

"It was same in 2009 with Kimi [Raikkonen]. In the second half of the season he was better than Jenson [Button], who won the championship that year.

"Yes, you need the fastest car out there, but at the same time you need a consistent car and consistent results. We will go for the second option because Mercedes has an edge on everyone."