Fernando Alonso reveals astonishing scale of US GP car damage

Fernando Alonso believes a rare point-scoring opportunity was on the cards for Aston Martin at the United States Grand Prix.

The Spaniard lined up in 12th place after a positive qualifying outing on Saturday, but his race quickly unravelled when he was involved in a collision with Alex Albon on the opening lap.

It led Alonso to criticise the quality of the drivers towards the back of the F1 pack.

The two-time champion explained the extent of his car damage after the race, suggesting he was losing at least half a second per lap.

"I'd been hit by Alex in Turn 11, I think," Alonso told media including RacingNews365.

"That was the biggest damage. I think we lost like half a second or more.

"The car is destroyed. I saw it in parc fermé; half of the floor is not there. I don't know how we kept on going and how we were semi-competitive.

"So I imagine if the car was in one piece, probably today the points were a strong possibility, because we were running P12 with half a car."

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'P9, P10 was possible' - Alonso

Aston Martin has scored seven points this year, with its last top 10 finish coming earlier this month at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

Having had hopes of adding to the team's tally at the Circuit of the Americas, Alonso was forced to rue what might have been.

"One side of the floor was there and one side not," he said. "That was quite impressive what the car was able to do.

"It remains a little bit a curiosity of, with a full car performance, what we could have done.

"Probably P9, P10, points on merit was possible."