McLaren driver Fernando Alonso has said that he was pleasantly surprised by the pace of his car during the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The double world champion missed the opening race of the season after a crash in winter testing, which meant that the grand prix in Sepang was his first since he rejoined McLaren in December.

The Spaniard dropped out of the race on lap 21 with engine problems, but he insists that he is still optimistic ahead of the rest of 2015.

When asked how he felt his weekend went, he told reporters: "Yes, better than expected. [The] pace was surprisingly good, running with the pack even catching the Red Bulls at the end before the pitstop.

"Hopefully in China we can make another step forward. These reliability problems are normal without [much running in] winter testing. This is normally what you find in winter testing and we have to find it in the first couple of races."

McLaren are yet to score a point this year.