Alonso, starting from 13th on the grid, took advantage of the tricky conditions early in the race to climb up to eighth position despite the clear deficit in terms of top speed on the long straights.

The McLaren driver was forced to retire with a driveshaft problem on lap 31, but was still delighted with his own showing.

"Yeah, incredible," said Alonso when asked if he was happy with his performance. "I thought Australia would be unrepeatable and here it was the same or even better.

"The conditions helped and so we took advantage of that. People were spinning left and right and we were gaining places more or less for free, and then when the track was damp we were keeping the pace of the best with a top speed deficit that's pretty incredible.

"One of the best things that have happened to me," he added.

Alonso, who believes he could have finished the race in the points, admitted that keeping the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas behind him for a few laps was "surreal".

"I think we'd be fighting with Perez and Magnussen for the final points," he said.

"I think we could have scored one or two points like in Australia in an incredible way, because running ahead of Bottas and that he can't overtake you for two or three laps was one of the most surreal things that have ever happened to me.

"He was like 300m behind me and he passed me on the straight but then I could sort of stay with him on the following lap, so it was one of the most surreal things that have happened to me."

Alonso's teammate Stoffel Vandoorne also retired from the race with a fuel system issue, and the Spanish driver acknowledged the team is still paying the price for its lack of laps in testing.

"As we said in Australia: having not done testing, we are discovering new problems race after race. Let's hope we can have a normal reliability soon to be able to finish the races."