Alonso laments 'losing opportunity' amid Red Bull slump

Fernando Alonso believes Aston Martin missed out an on opportunity in Singapore Grand Prix qualifying, after only going seventh fastest.

Aston Martin has been one of the closest teams to challenge Red Bull for most of the year, but its performance has dropped off in recent races.

Red Bull suffered a double knock-out in Q2 with Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen, which gave Aston Martin a chance to start further up the grid and potentially score good points.

But it turned out to be tough for Alonso to get close to Mercedes or Ferrari, as he failed to get within the top five.

"It was tricky for us the whole day, FP3 we were not competitive and then in qualifying we made some setup changes," Alonso told media, including RacingNews365.

"The car did improve, but only for P7. When the Red Bulls are not dominating, it feels like you are losing an opportunity to win that position."

Alonso: We thought Singapore would suit us

Aston Martin has shown its strength hroughout the season at street circuits, with Alonso nearly grabbing pole at Monaco earlier in the season.

The team was left searching for answers after Alonso's lack of performance and Lance Stroll's struggles, which led to his scary shunt at the end of Q1.

"Coming into the weekend we thought that Singapore could fit our package and our car," said Alonso.

"But after FP1, FP2, FP3, I think we went into qualifying knowing that Q3 was maybe already a difficult task to be in the top 10.

"So at the end, P7 feels okay. The lap in Q3 was very good, one of the best laps of qualifying of this year, in my opinion. Nothing more today on the car."