It was a case of mixed fortunes for Fernando Alonso in Austin as he secured second place in the drivers’ championship but saw Ferrari lose ground to Mercedes in the battle for second in the constructors’ version.
Alonso had a typically feisty race in Austin, eventually finishing fifth.
“The main goal of the weekend was to beat Mercedes, to fight for the constructors’ championship,” said Alonso. It was not a good weekend from that aspect, we lost some points again. Lotus is getting closer, and for whatever reason we are losing a little bit of pace in the last Grands Prix. We need to find something for Brazil, because I think it’s going to be a tough weekend again.
“Entering Q3 is difficult, entering the points is difficult, so we need to improve for the next race. But in a way I secured second place in the drivers’ World Championship today, which I think with the actual car we have is World Champion of the rest.”
Alonso just managed to hold off Nico Hulkenberg in the closing laps.
“It was difficult I think, a very difficult race for us. From the start we knew that we could lose one position with Perez, starting on the wrong side of the grid. Unfortunately we lost it. I wasn’t able to run so close in the first stint, because I was damaging the tyres, I stepped back a little bit and then I recovered a little bit of pace around the pit stop time.
“With the hard tyre we were maybe a little bit more competitive, we were able to attack Perez, we were able to attack Hulkenberg. But I finished the tyres in the last two or three laps, so Nico was coming back, attacking again. I was lucky, one more lap and I would lose the position with Nico.
“When you are in free air you can manage the tyres a little bit, and control the wear of the tyres and control the pace, but when you are in traffic you never know how much you need to push. You would like to overtake, but you stress more the tyres, and it was a difficult race.”
Adam Cooper's F1 Blog 
first of the losers…
if only he had a better car Vettle wouldn’t have it that easy
Second place in the fourth best car and Luca is still putting him down. It’s time for Fernando to move to where his talents will be appreciated. McLaren/Honda in 2015 sounds good to me.
Wherever Alonso ends up it will no doubt be largely influenced by the teams relative performance in 2014. Mercedes tired of McLaren’s loss of competitiveness, and I’m sure Honda will have a timetable of their own to win a title. Honda + McLaren is no guarantee of a winning package. Likely, yes, but Mr. Newey and Renault will have much to say about that.
I’m not a big Fernando fan, but without him Ferrari would be in a dismal situation indeed.
Fernando is a good driver but that Ferrari is a better race car than the Mercedes. The only drawback is their qualifying and particularly Alonso’s qualifying in the last few races.
What a unfortunate statement! Alonso is a bad loser, every time que open his mouth is only to treat the legitimity of Vettel’s supremacy. He is the second place and that’s all. There is just one champion and that person is Sebastian Vettel.