Fernando Alonso may have lost out to both Haas and Renault in Sunday’s Spanish GP but the McLaren driver reckons his team’s upgrades have closed the gap.

Racing a heavily revised MCL33 in Spain last weekend, Alonso’s McLaren caught the eye as it sported an unusual nose job and other updates.

The upgrades did the job with Alonso making it into Q3 for the first time this season.

He posted a 1:18.480 to qualify in eight place, 0.045s behind Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and 0.069s ahead of Renault driver Carlos Sainz.

He did, however, lose out to both in the grand prix.