Fernando Alonso insists that his "thrown to the lions" comment was "classic FOM radio" broadcast "completely out of context".

The Spaniard has been showing increasing frustration over the course of the weekend and his mood wasn't helped when his team opted to pit him early this afternoon. Indeed, stopping on Lap 11, he was only the fourth driver to make a regular stop.

He rejoined the fray in 12th, clearly unhappy as following a strong opening lap he had climbed as high as sixth before being called in.

Unable to keep pace with Esteban Ocon due to his lack of straight-line speed, the Spaniard took to the radio.

"You've thrown me to the lions by stopping that early mate. Unbelievable!" he said.

Detecting a possible rift between the Spaniard and his team as it continues to lose ground to the likes of Mercedes and McLaren, Alonso was asked about his comment at race end. However, the Spaniard insisted that his message was broadcast without context.

“Not angry," he said. "I think it's the same classic theme, the classic FOM radio, completely out of context.

"I'm not sure exactly what other drivers say when they are behind a car that is slower and on the straight, they are pulling away even when you open the DRS. Maybe they say, 'I'm okay, I'm happy to stay here and to stay behind'," he added.

"But I prefer to be motivated, to overtake them. On track, as I said, I was slower even with the DRS open. So I called for a different strategy, we stopped, we beat them.

"That's the way we do it," he smiled. "We beat everyone on track, even if the radio is the highlight.

"I think we were fast today, faster than what we thought, in terms of pace," he said of the race. "I was behind the Ferraris, in front of Hamilton with not too much pressure. I think lap 12 we stopped. And I think it was to cover Tsunoda, which it was a bit of a surprise. After that stop, obviously, the race is very long from that moment onwards.

"Maybe that was a mistake," he continued. "But easy to say now. I think arguably the final result would be P8, after the top teams. So it didn't change much in our race.

"I was upset because the first stop I think it was too early. I didn't argue. I knew that we stopped too early. And it's not a problem. Sometimes we benefit."

Check out our Sunday gallery from Suzuka here.