Following the two frustrating weekends in the USA and Mexico, Alonso’s team-mate Lance Stroll qualified third for Sunday’s race at Interlagos, with the Spaniard alongside in fourth.
The team had a frustrating shootout on Saturday, with Alonso tangling with Esteban Ocon and Stroll losing out to the red flag that followed.
However, from 15th and 17th on the sprint grid they showed good pace as they moved up the field to 11th and 12th in a race that otherwise saw relatively little passing, with Alonso finishing ahead.
"It was hard because the triple race now obviously put a lot of stress on everyone,” said Alonso when asked by Autosport about the turnaround.
“It's difficult to analyse data, it's difficult to go back to the factory to reunite everyone. But the team was always working flat out to solve the problems, and to find solutions. And yeah, this performance here in Brazil is going in the right direction."
Expanding on the upturn, he said: "I think especially after this race we have some kind of relief, some weight out of the shoulders from some people, and going into the right direction is a good boost for everyone in the factory.
“And we really needed this type of performance here in Brazil. If we had another weekend struggling maybe that was a little bit worrying, but we always kept pragmatic and doing some tests, some experiments, even if they were painful. And hopefully we have a lot of data now to analyse everything."
Source: Autosport