Planet-F1

Alonso: That was as good as it gets

Tuesday 25th March 2008

Fernando Alonso concedes Renault are off the pace and the only reason why he scored a point in Malaysia is because Felipe Massa retired.

Although Alonso finished fourth in the season-opening Australian GP it was partly due to the fact that only seven runners finished the race. Therefore Malaysia was to be the first true test of Renault's potential.

The R28, though, came up short with Alonso battling to finish in eighth place and later admitting that the only reason he did was because a car that should have finished ahead, Massa, retired.

"It was more or less as we expected," he told AS newspaper.

"We knew that finishing in the top eight was going to be difficult and if it hadn't been for Massa's retirement we wouldn't have made it, that's the reality and that's what the situation is like, it was no surprise.

"In a normal race, with no retirements, we were ninth in qualifying and eighth in the race. Everything was as expected."

Even worse for Renault, though, is that their double World Champion doubts the team's pace - or results - are going to get any better as the season progresses.

"In Barcelona we will have some improvements for the car, (but) the same ones all teams will have, so the Championship is going to stay more or less the same," he said.

"We saw it last year and we see it every year. The cars that win the first two or three races stay on top. We are not going to see big surprises during the year," he added.