Fernando Alonso said McLaren must improve after a scoreless Chinese Grand Prix, labelling the race as "boring".
In his first race back since suffering a huge crash in Melbourne, the double world champion finished outside of the points in 12th, one place ahead of team-mate Jenson Button. Despite running as high as third during the early stages in Shanghai, Alonso believes McLaren did not show enough pace to earn a place within the top 10.
"You're always disappointed when you don't finish in the points, we expected a bit more today," he said, "For sure we expected to be in the top ten but that was not possible today. No one had any issues today, whereas in the race I watched from the pit all there were car parts all over the track, big chaos in the first lap. Here everyone finished the race and we weren't quick enough to finish inside the top ten. We have to improve for the next race."
"It was a bit of a boring race for us."
Alonso, who has taken two victories in China -- during his maiden title-winning campaign in 2005 and in 2013 -- feels that the Woking-based outfit failed to capitalise on an early safety car.
"We couldn't take advantage of the safety car period. Our strategy was to start with the soft tyre to go a bit longer in the first stint, but then we lost the 25 seconds and the others made time by pitting early and then being helped by the safety car. They had a free pit stop, we didn't, that didn't help but the pace was not great either."
The Spaniard said that despite feeling initial pain from the rib injuries which kept him out in Bahrain before going to the grid, he had no issues during the grand prix.
"When we did the preparatory laps before going to the grid I was in more pain than on Saturday, so I was a bit worried. But during the race -- I don't know if it's because of the adrenalin, the thrill of racing or whatever -- I didn't feel a thing and only know that you ask me I'm thinking about the broken rib. I had no issues during the race."