Fernando Alonso has suggested that McLaren must find more pace if they are to regularly challenge for points this season.

The Spaniard was unable to replicate his qualifying performance from Monaco a fortnight ago and will start the Canadian Grand Prix from 13th on the grid after penalties to other drivers saw him move up.

While Alonso is hoping to finish in the top 10 in Montreal, the two-time world champion is realistic about McLaren's expectations.

He is quoted by F1i as saying: "I think Canada always offers some nice races and some action, race, some safety cars and reliability issues for everybody, it's a very demanding circuit. So I think starting P13 the points could be available for us at one point in the race so we will try to do something.

"I think we are all aware of the lack of performance and of reliability – these are two different issues. I think the team is do all we can to fix the issues. Some of the parts we've reinforced for this race, they've been working fine without problems.

"The parts that we broke this weekend are some of the parts that are a little bit quite high mileage. But these are the limits of the Formula 1 cars but for sure we need to make the car faster, and stronger and as smooth as possible."

Alonso's teammate Jenson Button sat out qualifying with reliability problems and will start from the back of the grid.