Alonso pleased with performance

Fernando Alonso impressed yet again in last weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, the Renault driver finishing fourth right behind Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya. Initially some way down the road, the Spaniard homed in on the front runners in the closing ...

Fernando Alonso impressed yet again in last weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, the Renault driver finishing fourth right behind Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya. Initially some way down the road, the Spaniard homed in on the front runners in the closing stages and set the fastest lap of the race on his way.

Fernando Alonso.

Photo by Michael Kim.

"The car worked incredibly well in the race," Alonso told the Renault website. "I had a few problems at the start of the race because I had chosen the softer tyres, and they had some difficulty adapting to the track initially, because it was so green after the rain during the weekend. I added some front wing at my first stop, and everything was perfect from then on."

Although he was practically on Montoya's rear wing at the end, Alonso doesn't think he would have been able to pass the Williams if there had been more laps to run. "No way," he said. "I could catch him quite easily, but he had a better maximum speed."

"Even so, I still hit 339 km/h, which is pretty quick! The step in performance year by year is incredible: I'm already starting to wonder how quick we will be going in a straight line at Monza this year…"

Teammate Jarno Trulli eventually retired from the race after a string of mishaps but Alonso had a trouble free time: "I didn't have a single mechanical problem all weekend," he said. "It proves the work the Team have done. Things look promising: the Championship is still wide open, thanks to the new regulations and the new points distribution. It's a good thing, I think."