Though delighted with his team's significant step forward in Hungary, Fernando Alonso wonders where exactly the improvement came from.
The Silverstone-based outfit was the only team to fail to score a single point over the Sprint weekend in Belgium, yet a week later it was challenging for pole and the podium.
Alonso qualified fifth - equalling his grid position in Imola - while teammate Lance Stroll, who lined up sixth on the grid, enjoyed his best qualifying of the season.
The sheer pace of the McLarens, and the superiority of the Mercedes and Ferrari, meant a podium was never really on the table, yet both drivers finished in the points, the Spaniard scoring his best result of the season.
"I think it couldn't have gone any better than this, obviously," said the Spaniard at race end. "Someone told me that the two McLarens were very close to each other at one point. That would have been even better, but it didn't happen," he smiled, aware that any such mishap could have guaranteed a podium appearance.
"Apart from that, I think we maximised the performance of the car yesterday in qualifying and today in the race," he added. "Not much more to do on our side."
The Spaniard, who like race-winner Lando Norris, his Aston Martin teammate, Gabriel Bortoleto and Liam Lawson was on a one-stop strategy, ran as high a third after the two-stoppers made the first of their stops.
"The biggest threat was the two stops, but then he had some traffic, and at the end we were a little bit more relaxed.
"Before my pitstop I didn't want to lose much time," he said of his battle with George Russell. "I wanted him to overtake me on the main straight, not into Turn 2, because then we both lose a lot of time. So I said I will defend this straight and maybe in the next lap I let him go."
For Hungary Aston Martin brought a new front wing whose more aggressive design increases the total amount of load the wing can generate and was used with the team's higher downforce rear wing. This followed the introduction of a new front wing flap introduced at Spa a week earlier, which aimed to lower the loading on the front wing to achieve the required balance with the lower rear wing, but obviously didn't make much difference.
Alonso is confused by the turnaround in performance.
It is a surprise, definitely," he said. "It's a nice surprise. The good thing is that we were competitive and we were fast. The concerning thing is that we don't know why.
"In a way, we need this week at the factory to analyse exactly what are the differences between Spa and Hungary," he continued, "what are the differences on the car as well, on the set-up, on the aero devices that we were racing with.
"The main thing for us was the front wing that was new this weekend. If that front wing gives us that much of performance, that's very good news, but I think that has to be understood at the moment."
The Spaniard was keen to pay tribute to his protege, Bortoleto, who finished sixth, the Brazilian's best result of the season.
"He commits few errors, always putting pressure," he said. "He's the best rookie of this generation. If he was English, or something, and finished sixth in a Sauber, he'd be in all the news tomorrow. What he does is exceptional."
Alonso's view of the youngster is shared by Stake team boss, Jonathan Wheatley.
"Gabriel has a fantastic work ethic," said the Briton. "He has a capacity for taking on new information. He's proving every way to be the future star that we expected him to be.
"It's worth pointing out again that he hasn't done 10,000 kilometres of testing of previous cars," he continued. "He hasn't done 10,000 kilometres in the Formula 1 car. It's his first season in Formula 1.
"There are so many circuits that he's not been to. And there's some coming up that he hasn't been to. He's been able to deliver brilliantly over the last few races in circuits that he knows.
"I think he's matured as a driver and he's developed as a driver. And I think he's going to be able to adapt to these new circuits much quicker than he did in the first half of the season."
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