Fernando Alonso says he missed out on a strong finish after an unfortunate incident on the last lap of qualifying for the Formula 1 British Grand Prix on Saturday.

Aston Martin managed to finish in the top 10 with both of its cars, with Lance Stroll managing to take eighth place.

Alonso was only able to climb up to third place in Q2, but after abandoning his final lap he could only come in 10th place.

The Spaniard said he was “disappointed” to be in 10th place after the 12-minute third quarter, while Alonso attributed this to some strategic mistakes.

“We only fitted one set of new tyres in Q3,” Alonso explained.

“And yes, we didn’t make it to the (final) lap. There was a big fight between Carlos (Sainz), Oscar (Piastri) and me on the outer lap.

“They both started very close to each other, so their laps were not good and I started in first gear in the last corner.

“I was half a second behind in Turn 3 and yes, we boxed.

“Yeah, being P3 in Q2, with that lap time probably P7, P6, P8 or whatever in Q3, it hurts a bit but there’s nothing we can do about it at the moment.

Yet despite Alonso’s disappointment, both Astons’ Q3 qualifying is a significant improvement on recent races where the Silverstone-based Formula 1 team has struggled to qualify through Q2.

Aston has been struggling with a trio of races over the summer as it struggles to figure out how to extract performance from multiple upgrades.

But the team’s stronger performance at Silverstone on Saturday was due to lessons learned at Barcelona and the Red Bull Ring.

“I think we understood a few of the problems we had in Barcelona and Austria, so we were optimistic, or more optimistic, that this race would solve some of them,” Alonso said.

“And yes, I think we’ve confirmed that the car is back in a more natural position, fifth or sixth fastest team, we’re fighting for the final points in Q3 and hopefully tomorrow we’re fighting for the final few points with both cars.”

Aston Martin’s bid to fend off advances from midfield teams such as RB and Alpine includes bringing further upgrades to Silverstone, with revised front wing and rear corner elements.

Alonso said the team was performing “as expected” as they look to improve after recent setbacks.

“I think the improvements are better, the car performs better and we tested them yesterday, the new front wing and other things, it was a step forward as expected.

“And yes, I think we took two or three steps back in Austria and Barcelona and here we corrected the car a little bit.