Alonso convinced of Schumacher penalty

The FIA is currently investigating the incident after Schumacher passed Alonso on the final corner to take sixth place away from the Spaniard.

Alonso said his team had made it clear overtaking was not allowed because of the safety car situation and is expecting Schumacher to be penalised.

"The race was very good and in the end I still have a good feeling. The team told me we couldn't overtake so when I saw Michael... That's a lot better, as they will penalise him, so we will end up winning anyway," Alonso told Spanish reporters after the race.

Alonso said he asked the team repeatedly about overtaking, as he was willing to pass Lewis Hamilton for fifth, and had been told that it was strictly forbidden.

Nonetheless, the Ferrari driver completed a brilliant recovery after having started from the pitlane, and he was very pleased with the result.

He was also critical of Virgin's Luca di Grassi, whom he believes tried too hard to keep him behind.

"It was a good race," Alonso added. "There were two key point that we had discussed. One was overtaking on track the six slow cars, the Lotus, the Virgin and the Hispania, and then with the strategy try to overtake as many cars as possible. Both things worked fine.

"I lost a few laps behind di Grassi, who must have thought the world championship was at stake in Monaco, but that's up to him. And then the strategy was perfect and we could recover a lot of positions.

"It turned out a lot better than expected. And without those laps behind di Grassi I would have come out in front of Hamilton, so it was a perfect Sunday."

The Spaniard, five points behind Mark Webber in the standings, said he was happy about the championship situation, but conceded Ferrari will need to raise its game to catch Red Bull.

"We have less points than we should have and that's why we are not leading the championship. But it's also true that the rivals have shared the wins a lot and no one is running away. We have Hamilton and the Mercedes behind us and we only have the Red Bulls ahead of us.

"As of today, under normal circumstances, they are unbeatable, but they have shared wins and bad luck between them so no one has run away and that's the best news for us. But we are also realistic and we know we have to improve. We have to be quicker in qualifying and we have to win races like they do and let's hope that happens soon."