Alonso: “I am extremely happy with this good start for Ferrari”

Fernando Alonso said he was a little disappointed at not being able to win the Australian Grand Prix, but admitted that second place was still a fantastic result to start the season.

Alonso started the first Grand Prix of the season, from fifth position, but ended up fighting for victory, after his Ferrari F138 showed excellent performance in race trim.

The Spaniard was able to match Kimi Raikkonen's pace in the second part of the race, the Finn still won by over 12 seconds after pulling off a two-stop strategy, unique among the leaders.

Alonso admitted that the Finn was simply too strong in Melbourne.

“It was fantastic, fantastic race, we fought the whole race,” Alonso said. “The race was exciting every lap and I personally had a lot of fun, obviously.”

“In the end it was a bit sad not to be able to win the race, but Kimi was fantastic today, Lotus too. We must congratulate them on a fantastic race.”

The Ferrari driver, with a three-stop strategy, admitted that Raikkonen's ability to only stop twice is a concern for next week's Malaysian Grand Prix.

“It's a concern, yes,” he said. “Lotus did a very good job and Kimi drove incredibly well and only managed to make two stops. So we have to analyze it. We only have four days for the next race and we have difficult opponents.”

“But in the end I am extremely happy. We have had a very difficult start to the season for two years and this year looks very different. We are very optimistic and have an interesting season ahead.”

Teammate, Felipe Massa, completed a promising start to the season for Ferrari by grabbing fourth position.