Fernando Alonso has clarified a request he made during yesterday's Canadian Grand Prix.

With just a handful of laps remaining, the Spaniard, who was running just outside the points, asked his team; "can I stop now".

This led to suggestions that he wanted to retire his car as he found himself running well off the pace and looking likely to lose further positions. Indeed, throughout 2015 it was a regular request.

The team told him to continue, advising that in the likelihood of further incidents or retirements there would be points on the table. The Spaniard obliged.

However, speaking after the race, Alonso revealed that he wasn't asking to retire but to stop for fresh rubber.

"We were out of the points and obviously I had done 55 laps already with that set of tyres so it was quite difficult to keep it on the track," admitted the Spaniard. "Maybe we had the possibility to do a free stop without losing any points and to be a little bit quicker and enjoy the last laps, but it was a little bit of a risk because we could maybe get a point."

Finishing just outside the points, the Spaniard, who qualified tenth for the third consecutive race, admitted that there is still much work to be done, especially on pace.

"We have to improve the pace, because today we were not good enough," he said. "We knew it would be a complicated circuit. We didn't have the pace to be competitive, but we tried our best and we'll try to improve in the next race."

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