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Alonso: We still need luck to win

Fernando Alonso believes he will need some luck to take a home victory in Valencia, despite declaring himself happy with the improved competitiveness of his Renault after Friday's practice

The double world champion ended the day fastest of all, but he believes that he still needs the front-runners to trip over themselves if he is to win on Sunday.

"I think we need some help from the others," he said. "It is the same as last year in Singapore - where there was some help from the safety car - where there was a lucky moment and I took the benefit.

"And then in Fuji, at the start, the first four cars were off the track at Turn 1, so without those things I could not win any races also last year.

"This year is more or less the same. We still need a couple of tenths to be able to win a grand prix, maybe three or four tenths to be competitive enough to win, but we are just behind that first group.

"So if they do any mistakes then maybe we can take that opportunity, but it will not depend only on us."

Alonso added that he had been pleasantly surprised by his pace, which he said was not all down to a last-minute low-fuel run.

"It is not only the last lap that we were quick," he said. "Sometimes you drop fuel at the end and you put in a nice lap. But, this afternoon it was a little bit better than that.

"We were always in the top three, top two, with any condition, with any tyre and with any fuel load. So this was the best thing for us this afternoon.

"The car seems competitive in all the parts and in all the conditions we put it, and this is good news at the moment for us. But it is only Friday and we need to keep working."

Alonso was also summoned to the stewards after his collision with Nick Heidfeld, but no action was taken over the incident.

"I had to go and see the stewards this morning after P1 and now this afternoon after P2. Hopefully tomorrow I can be more relaxed!" he said.

"After the first session it was just because we missed the autograph session yesterday, because Romain and I had a sponsorship commitment," he explained. "Then in P2, with the [Nick] Heidfeld incident, where unfortunately these things happen in motor racing.

"In my opinion, it was just a normal incident.

"I thought he was coming to the pits because he was going very wide in the last corner, and he had to take the pitlane entry. Then he suddenly turned in and crossed the circuit like he was on an out-lap, to start the next lap a little bit quicker. That surprised me completely.

"We touched each other as he didn't see me. But, there is nothing more than that. They asked for an explanation from him and for an explanation from me, and that is all."

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