Fernando Alonso scored his 97th career podium at Hungary and the Spaniard believes his second place felt like a Grand Prix win.
The former two-time Formula One World Champion has not had much to be pleased about in recent times.
His Ferrari team have continued to remain well off the pace and this season is unlikely to provide him with another race win.
His last victory and 32nd of his career came 15 months ago in China and whilst he had an outside chance of victory on Sunday it was down to a huge bit of luck and a tyre gamble.
?It was definitely a perfect time [to finish on the podium]. It was a tricky race with some changeable conditions with some Safety Cars and rain and that obviously mixed the cars a little bit and we took the opportunity,? Alonso told Sky Sports.
?The first Safety Car we were on the first corner, so we missed the pitlane entry, and with that move Ricciardo and Felipe [Massa] overtook us. So that was a little bit of an unlucky position.
?Then with the last Safety Car we saw Ricciardo and Massa pitting, we had the opportunity to lead the race and to control the race from the lead and we thought that was the best decision. We struggled a little bit in the last part with the tyres but this podium obviously tastes like a victory.?
While he conceded victory with three laps to go when Daniel Ricciardo soared past, he was able to hold off the Mercedes of former team-mate Lewis Hamilton as the duo were on the same tyres.
Alonso’s 18 points for second place finish places him 4th in the Formula One World Championship on 115 points.
He is 16 points behind third placed Ricciardo and a whopping 88 points clear of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.
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