Alonso issues Ferrari warning after 'bad weekend' for Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso has issued a warning to Ferrari after he branded Aston Martin's Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend "bad" despite managing to get close to the podium.

During the restart after the Safety Car period, Alonso pulled off a move on Carlos Sainz for P4 then set his sights for the rest of the race on Charles Leclerc.

After a brief period of setting quicker laps than the Ferrari, Alonso had to concede position and finished just 0.807s off Leclerc.

Speaking after the race, Alonso took comfort from Aston Martin's result in spite of a "bad" weekend for the team.

"In a bad weekend from Aston we are fighting for the podium against one of the best weekends for Ferrari," he told media, including RacingNews365.com.

"They were on pole position for the Sprint race, pole position for the main race, and they were just one second in front of us."

DRS issues fixed for the Aston Martin's

Aston Martin has been suffering from DRS issues throughout the weekend, which Alonso attributed to his poor qualifying performance on Friday and difficulty progressing during the Sprint day.

When asked if the issues were fixed for the race, Alonso retorted that he experienced the highest top speeds all weekend.

"It worked today! A lot of speed, I've never been that fast for the whole weekend!" he joked.

One of the main strengths of the AMR23 is the tyre degradation, which Alonso believes could play into their hands in the upcoming races as it looks to finish on the podium more regularly.

He added: "I was happy with everything on the car. The strength of the car, for whatever reason is still the tyre degradation, which is seems to be better than the others.

"Unfortunately with the Safety Car we put on the Hard tyres and that tyre was very robust until the end.

"Without that Safety Car, I think the Ferraris would have struggled a lot in the first stint. So maybe Miami is a better chance for us."