Alonso hopes Spain was no one-off

The French squad took a significant step forward in Barcelona, thanks to several updates introduced for the race at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Alonso qualified on the first row of the grid for the first time this year, and was racing near the top before his engine expired.

The Spaniard, however, is optimistic Renault can keep their momentum going in Turkey, and he admitted the team were stronger than expected in Barcelona.

"I hope so," Alonso told reporters in Istanbul. "I think it's the thing we are hoping because we knew that the car was better and we improved the car before Barcelona but it was better than we expected - the pace we had in Barcelona, it was a nice surprise so we don't want to think it was just a special race and the circuit suited our car.

"And we want to confirm the pace here in Turkey and anyway the position is not as good as we want because we are still fighting for seventh place and the top three teams are still a little bit ahead of us.

"But if we confirm this performance, it's a great achievement because we are close - the next step we introduce to the car can put us in the fight for the top three so first of all hopefully we can confirm this performance."

Alonso admitted driving the R28 now is quite a lot easier following the upgrades, although he is sure there is still more work to do.

"It's like driving with more downforce and you don't have so much wheelspin and in the corners it feel easier to drive and you make less mistakes because the car has more grip.

"We still need to do some work to catch the front-runners but obviously now is a little bit easier than three weeks ago."

The Renault driver said the starts were still a concern for him, as he believes Ferrari are clearly ahead of their rivals.

"Yeah, we knew unfortunately that the Ferrari was starting much better than us," he said.

"We've done some calculations after the races and we saw already in the first three races that Ferrari is the best car off the starting grid. I think I had too much wheelspin in Barcelona to be honest.

"After the first 30-40 metres they were okay and I had a little too much wheelspin and I lost all acceleration from that point. It's something we need to work on - and that's all the team except Ferrari.

"My start compared to Kubica, Hamilton and those guys was quite similar and the only two guys starting better than the others was the two Ferraris so we need to improve."