“I had said that when it rains, anything can happen,” Alonso related, “which was the case as we had a difficult race with a very wet circuit. I used up my tyres very quickly and I finished the race virtually with slicks, which meant I lost a lot of time in certain parts of the track. We could have probably had a better result [at Silverstone], but in the end I scored three points, which is important for the championship.”

“For me, it (the podium) does not have much value,” he added, speaking to Spanish newspaper El Pais. “What I want to achieve is fourth place in the constructors' championship by the end of the season.

“The podium for Red Bull in Canada can be attributed to luck, and [at Silverstone] Honda, after their bad results, they're not now driving rockets…

“We have to stay calm and continue to add points. There are years when you are lucky and others when you are not. I would rather be unlucky now, when we are not fighting for the title.”

Fast-improving rookie team-mate Nelsinho Piquet, for his part, was one of those to come a cropper at Silverstone, unfortunately throwing away what could have been a podium finish – or a strong points result at least – when he lost control of his R28 on the treacherous circuit on lap 36.

“I'm obviously extremely disappointed with the retirement,” the young Brazilian reflected. “The car was very good, our strategy was perfect and we were on-course for a very good result. However, when the rain came down very heavily, the track was completely flooded.

“It wasn't just in the turns that the car was out-of-control, it was even on the straights. It was impossible to control. We have to take positives in that the car was good and we showed how competitive we could be, so we have to take that to Hockenheim now.”

The Enstone-based outfit's managing director Flavio Briatore and executive director of engineering Pat Symonds were similarly phlegmatic about the overall outcome to the race – one they well knew could have yielded so much more than just Alonso's three points.

“Once again it was a race that looked promising,” Briatore acknowledged, “but we were not able to make the most of our chances. The first part of the race showed that Fernando and Nelson were very competitive, and we must make sure that we build upon this potential in the second part of the season.”

“Our pace at the start of the race seemed reasonable,” added Symonds, “but it was obviously a mistake to leave the tyres on Fernando's car at the first stop. Later in the race we were clearly uncompetitive, and we need to find the reason why.”