Alonso offers explanation of Aston Martin struggles

Fernando Alonso believed Aston Martin finished where they 'deserved' after another weekend without a podium.

The team was off the pace compared to Ferrari and McLaren's Lando Norris, with Alonso electing to start on the alternate strategy.

While it was intended to make him go longer in the first stint, the early Virtual Safety Car brought out by Nico Hulkenberg prevented Alonso from having an advantage towards the end.

"We try something different, an alternative strategy starting on the on the Hard tyre and obviously that Virtual Safety Car didn't help our our hopes of extending the first stint," he told media, including RacingNews365.com.

"The race was neutralised from that point on and we all had the same tyres in the end. We more or less finished in the place we deserve. We were six fasters and kept sixth."

The Aston Martin driver finished just eight seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton on track before the Mercedes driver was handed a post-race penalty.

Alonso: Important to understand why we are struggling

It was the second race in a row they missed out on a podium, as other teams start to catch up to their early season advantage.

Alonso believes it could be track specific given the team's performance last year at the Red Bull Ring, as they look to stay in the fight with Ferrari and Mercedes.

"Last year Aston Martin was the 10th fastest in Austria and Haas was very fast starting in six and seventh last year and Haas was very good this year," explained Alonso.

"So there are some similarities from season to season that we seem to carry over in certain circuits. I think it's a little bit track specific that we are not good here, that doesn't mean that we need to accept that - we cannot come next year and be slow again.

"But between the track specifics and the upgrade that Ferrari and McLaren brought here, maybe we lost a little bit of pace. It's more up to us to understand why [at] certain circuits we seem to struggle more than the others."