Bottas and team-mate Zhou Guanyu finished eighth and ninth at Losail, with the latter jumping the penalised Sergio Perez in the final results.
The six points earned move the Hinwil outfit above Haas to eighth place in the constructors’ table, leaving it just seven behind Williams.
Alfa has brought a stream of new parts over recent races, culminating in a beam wing that was introduced in Qatar, and which was in effect a finishing touch to help the new package work effectively as a whole.
“I feel like we definitely made some progress now, and finally understand 100% the upgrades,” said Bottas regarding the team’s recent steps.
“Of course, the next race is quite a different track again, but it seems like we were definitely a bit more competitive this week.”
Asked if the beam wing was the final piece in the puzzle he said: “It definitely helps a little bit. But we're still draggy.
“I think we're probably still the slowest on the straight, so something to work on.”
The two drivers took opposite strategies for the Qatar race, with Bottas starting on softs and dumping them under the early safety car before running three long stints, and Zhou doing a long opening run from his back of the grid starting position, followed by a brief outing on softs at the end.
Source: Autosport