Fernando Alonso pulled off one of the results of the season by bringing home his heavily damaged McLaren to a seventh-place finish in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Alonso was caught in a collision with two other cars on the first lap and suffered punctures in both his right-hand tyres. By the time he reached turn 15 he was down to his wheel rims and post-race pictures have prompted the Spaniard to take to Twitter to describe the race as “unrepeatable”.

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier told BBC Sport that the Spaniard's performance was "a mega race. What he did is unbelievable."

Talking about the damage the car suffered in the initial crash Boullier said:

"The front tyre deflated straight away after turn three and then it takes some time before you lose the tyre from the rim. The rear right tyre deflated I think around turn 15.

"You can see [from the television footage] that after entering the pit lane, the car is not driveable, and actually he hit the wall on the right-hand side.

"At that stage, he told us after, he did not know how to bring the car to the pit. He didn't know if the car would steer. He just tried to go straight on the fast lane and he thought he would leave it there.

"At the last minute he turned and the car steered into the pit-stop bay. We made a joke with him and said it was the best positioning of the weekend.

"He said: 'Let's change the tyres and front wing and go.' From the pit wall, I saw these flames all around the floor. The car was on fire.”

According to BBC Sport's Andrew Benson - who was given exclusive access to the McLaren factory - although Alonso had heroically managed to get the car to the pits, the damage it had taken was incredible.

Benson wrote: "In the front of this there was a triangular hole, about 30cm by 20cm, as well as significant damage to the leading edge, as if someone had set about it with a powerful hammer. Some of the heavy tungsten ballast that is stored in the floor was missing.

"At the back of the car, there was damage along the right-hand side of the floor all the way from the very back of the diffuser - the upward slope at the rear - to forward of the rear wheel.

"Two sculpted curves on the right-hand side of the rear diffuser were gone. In front of the rear tyre, two key aerodynamic shapers were missing too."

And to think he actually finished 7th with his car in that state. A brilliant performance.

This is not the first time Alonso has managed a respectable result in a heavily damaged car - in qualifying at the 2006 Italian Grand Prix, a tyre failure left his Renault with broken rear bodywork, but he went on to set the fifth fastest time.

Boullier says that the two-time world champion is helped by his mentality: "He has this facility to switch his driving style always to suit the car balance. He is one of the very rare ones.

"I compare him sometimes to a shark when it smells blood in the sea. Then it starts to chase. Fernando is the same. In that mode, he decided: 'Change the tyres, let's go back racing.”

Alonso went on the attack after the final safety car stoppage stealing seventh place from Williams’ Lance Stroll on the last lap.

Boullier continued: "When you see the condition of the car, definitely it is one of the best ones. He did some other amazing things - sometimes when you feel he is in another world.

"The consistency he had with the tyres and tyre degradation and managing the tyres, especially with the safety car and everything, and he did it.

"Then, at the final safety car restart, we said: 'Oh my god, with the car he has, everyone is going to pass him.' But no. He is a real fighter.”