Alonso hoping for rain at Spa

The Spaniard believes that the Renault R29's lack of pace in dry conditions will make it difficult to fight for a top-eight finish and that bad weather could offer him his best chance of climbing into the points.

"In our position, it can only be good for us if this happens, so it's better for us," Alonso told AUTOSPORT regarding the prospect of a wet race.

"If it's wet, we know it's difficult to keep the car on the track. Sometimes you go off, you make a late decision to change to inters or slick tyres and all of these choices can win or lose you a lot of places. But it would still be a very tough race from where we are on the grid."

Alonso rated his chances of battling for a points finish in normal conditions poorly, pointing to the strength of the cars occupying the grid positions around the bottom half of the points places.

Alonso is also concerned because the KERS-equipped McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen are behind him on the grid.

"If the race is completely dry with no surprises, it's going to be a difficult race," said Alonso. "The last cars around the points - Kimi Raikkonen, Timo Glock and the two Red Bulls - are strong and will be difficult to overtake. We will also start with the two McLarens."

Alonso pointed to the aerodynamic deficiencies of the Renault R29 as being to blame for the car's lack of performance in qualifying, after strong performances in recent races at Valencia and Hungary.

"Spa is an aerodynamic track and you need to be able to run low downforce for the first and last sector and downforce for the middle sector," said Alonso.

"Our car is lacking in aerodynamic performance, but we've known that since the beginning of the season, and we are struggling at this track."