Fernando Alonso believes Aston Martin was in 'no man's land' in the Bahrain Grand Prix as its simulations proved accurate.
Alonso started sixth but was quickly overtaken by the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri before also being passed by Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton as the AMR24 could not hang onto the top four teams from last season at the front.
In his penultimate stint, Alonso elected to go long and hope for a Safety Car and cheap pit-stop, but the race passed without any deployments, meaning he was left to take the flag 1:14.887s behind race-winner Max Verstappen, 12 months on from a podium on his debut for the team.
Aston Martin was believed to be in the gaggle of teams behind Red Bull, with Alonso's strong qualifying effort hinting as much, but the two-time World Champion has explained how the team's pre-race prediction became very accurate.
Team-mate Lance Stroll would round out the points in 10th with a solid comeback drive after Nico Hulkenberg tipped him into a Lap 1, Turn 1 spin.
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"Everything was exactly what we expected," Alonso told media including RacingNews365.
"Our simulations were saying that we were around P9 with not much of a fight in front of us, as the top four teams are a little bit too much ahead with a comfortable gap behind and it was exactly like that.
"I had the McLaren's 18 seconds ahead and the Sauber 28 seconds behind, so we were in the middle of no-one's race.
"We are lacking pace for sure, and I think the [qualifying] lap is something to study and why we were so fast. I think the race was normal and what was exceptional was [the qualifying] lap.
"We had no chance to fight with the guys at the front, so we were waiting many laps, just hoping for a Safety Car.
"Once they overtook us, even with a Safety Car, we all had the same possibility to stop and didn't have an advantage anymore, so we decided to stop at that moment."
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