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Fernando Alonso says Ferrari opted against incurring a pit-lane start penalty at the United States Grand Prix but, as a result, did not have the power to challenge for higher than sixth on the grid.

While drivers can incur a penalty by using a sixth engine component, they are forced to start in the pits for changing the whole power unit - something Red Bull decided to do with Sebastian Vettel in Austin. Ferrari considered doing that but opted for an older engine in order to keep its least used one in good shape before Abu Dhabi, and so Alonso did not receive any penalty.

The result of this was a reduction in power but Alonso does not think it had a huge impact on his final position as he still finished on the third row.

"I think we've been around fifth and sixth all year long in qualifying so I don't think anything will change now," Alonso said. "We could have challenged Ricciardo if we had a perfect day, we were a couple of tenths down on the engine because there are some limitations there after the Monza engine failure.

"We were discussing last week about using the sixth engine and starting in the pit lane, like Red Bull did, or using a very old engine with a little bit less power but not needing to recover places. We chose the second option so we are missing a little bit of performance here and there but anyway, fifth is the way it is and we're pleased with that."

Though he admits it would have made sense to take that penalty in Austin, Alonso thinks Ferrari made the correct decision in the context of the Austin race.

"If you are to take the penalty it's better to do it here, as Red Bull did, because you then have three races where you have no worries about the mileage or the performance. But I feel we are OK, we should manage everything. We probably lost a couple of tenths today because of the power but we're still in the normal position, sixth. I'd prefer to start sixth with a couple of tenths down in the power than to start last and try to recover because it's difficult to overtake anyway.

"We are doing all these things to not take the sixth [engine]. Hopefully not anymore because in Brazil we should be able to manage and of course in Abu Dhabi we must not have a penalty because it's double points."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.