Alonso urges Aston Martin to ‘close the gap’ to top teams ahead despite scoring points in Canada

Fernando Alonso insisted Aston Martin still "need to close that gap" to the teams ahead of them, despite the Spanish star scoring in both Spain and Canada after not managing a single point across the opening eight races of 2025.

Alonso qualified a brilliant sixth in Montreal and delivered a seventh-place finish in the race – only losing out to Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari as Alonso came home at the front of the midfield. The turnaround has been stark, with luck finally smiling down on the Spaniard too.

Having already endured more than his fair share of reliability concerns, Canada was a straightforward weekend for Alonso, with his team nailing their tyre strategy throughout the sessions to ensure he had the right compound to qualify well.

That set him up for a tilt at points, and despite getting bogged down in traffic after his first pit stop, he always looked set to score at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

“Quite happy, I think the car was good the whole weekend,” Alonso said. "Actually, the race was probably our least strong point of the weekend.

“Thanks to the sixth position yesterday in Qualifying, we kept the pace at the beginning of the race and we opened a gap that was a little bit our safety net for the pit stops and things like that. Good weekend, we executed well and good points for the team.”

The upgrades that Aston Martin brought to the car at the start of that European triple-header seem to have made a significant difference as, before that point, Alonso had not qualified in Q3 all season, with a best of P12.

Since the upgrades he has made Q3 at every race, but the Spaniard was keen not to get ahead of himself – especially considering that, relative to a couple of seasons ago when he was fighting for podiums and even a potential win, Aston Martin still have work to do.

“It gives us a little bit more confidence to push but there are still some weaknesses in the car since the beginning that we still not solved completely. Especially on the race pace on Sunday we see the problems.

“Still a lot of work to do, today we led the midfield but the top teams are still quite far away and we need to close that gap.”

Lance Stroll was unable to score points on home soil after a difficult comeback weekend in Canada. He exited Qualifying in Q1, and then found himself serving a 10-second penalty during the race for forcing another driver off track when he was battling with Pierre Gasly, eventually finishing 17th.

"It's been a long, rough day and I'm not so pleased with this weekend overall,” Stroll explained after the race. “It was always going to be difficult starting the race from P17, but I also didn't feel like the car had the pace today to make up any positions.”

The two drivers are experiencing contrasting seasons – Stroll having scored in the opening two races before beginning a barren run, while Alonso only scored in the last two weekends. But Aston Martin will be relieved that Alonso’s points in Canada have kept them ahead of a resurgent Kick Sauber for the time being in the Teams' Championship.