Fernando Alonso said his mind briefly drifted to the possibility of a podium during the Monaco Grand Prix, where he recorded a season's best fifth position for McLaren.
Alonso rose up the order in Monaco's chaotic opening stages, which saw decisive switches to slicks from wets and intermediates at around the lap 31/32 mark. He spent his entire final stint running fifth ahead of championship leader Nico Rosberg in the class-leading Mercedes car and he admitted he thought the race could continue to fall in his direction.
Asked if he thought a podium was possible, Alonso said: "At one point I thought that maybe a podium was possible, after the pit stop I was P5, still 50 laps to go with tricky conditions, so I said 'if I keep it on the track and two DNF's, maybe it's a possible in front of me'. So I thought about the podium possibility for one second and then it was not possible."
McLaren came into the weekend optimistic of a strong weekend, with the team convinced it has the third best chassis on the grid behind Mercedes and Red Bull. Alonso said the result proves McLaren is moving in a good direction.
"I think we are obviously progressing well and I think that's quite obvious. You can see from the results we are achieving so we are going in the right direction but not where we want to be. We want to be right at the front and fighting for podiums but at the moment there is still a long way to go but quite happy with how things are going. The fifth place tastes very good."