Lando Norris admitted he spent the entire French Grand Prix "trying to keep up" with Fernando Alonso despite upgrades to his McLaren for the race.
The papaya team went into the weekend level on points with Alpine in the battle for fourth place. Those two teams look the most likely to be 'best of the rest' this season, though Alfa Romeo remain within touching distance.
And the rivalry began to ramp up on the eve of last weekend's race. Wily old competitor Alonso declared McLaren to be "unreachable" – a comment which led to Norris snapping back by accusing the Spaniard of playing "mind games".
And perhaps he was right, as Alonso finished sixth to cap a successful home race for Alpine. He was one place ahead of Norris as he crossed the finish line, with Esteban Ocon in eighth beating the other McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo.
"I was trying to keep up with Fernando for the whole race, and pushing like hell the whole time," said Norris after the race. "I was trying to save the tyres and push and save and push, whereas I felt like Fernando was chilling the whole race.
"I think there's still a lot of positives – [the upgrades have] helped the car, it's moved it in the right direction. Some of those improvements in balance that I seemed to have for yesterday, I lost today and went away from me, and I just didn't have the same confidence in the car. Good work by the team – we'd have been a lot slower if we didn't have them."
The result meant Alpine took a slender four-point advantage over McLaren in the constructors' standings. But there was cause for celebration for the under-fire Ricciardo, whose result saw him take points in back-to-back races for the first time this season.
"Certainly tricky out there – playing defence when I want to be on the attack," summed up the Australian. "I tried to hold on to Esteban Ocon for as long as I could, but in the end the Alpines were a bit too quick today. Managed to hold on to the Astons at the end but obviously want to be catching cars not falling back into the hands of the others.
"I think once we got through like halfway through the stint the others could just keep that pace and I would simply just fall off, just unable to use anymore of the tyre or the grip. Yes, I don't feel like I am aggressive on the tyre or anything, just simply can't hold what the others can."