A crazy race - Alonso

The Spanish Renault F1 Team driver drove a great race – and re-took the championship lead. Fernando Alonso is 10 points ahead of rival Michael Schumacher and Renault is 9 points ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship. After such crazy race, Alonso provided us with a crazy victory dance.

"It was a completely crazy race! I got the best possible start, and my aim was to not lose too much to the Ferraris. So I took some risks to get past Trulli in the second corner, and it worked. I had expected Ferrari to be much faster than us, but I soon realised I could match their pace and a podium was possible. I pushed hard, got past Ralf on the track, then Massa at the stops. I was just over 5 seconds behind Michael when his engine failed. That’s when I took the lead and controlled the race."

"At first, I thought somebody had gone off. I braked , then I saw oil and made sure I didn’t go off on it. When I came alongside, I realised it was Michael. I felt relieved, but there were still twenty laps to go. We decided to be cautious and turn the engine down."

"It was a surprise, but not such a big one. We expected to be closer to them because yesterday, Michael was two seconds faster in Q2 and that wasn’t normal. So we thought things would be closer in the race. My tyres were the same on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I think the other tyres got worse…"

"It is a bit too early to think like that. We always thought the championship would go down to Brazil, and that is what has happened. We will go into the race with much less pressure, because we only need a few points to reach our target. The team never thought it would be fighting for the win today so it means a lot. I am very, very pleased."

"If I want to give the team any advice, it is to be more conservative! We need to finish the race, and it will not necessarily be easy. Anything can happen: a mechanical failure, going off track, an accident… We need to stay focused."