Alonso Aims to Beat Raikkonen

Although Alonso has a comfortable 26-point advantage in the title chase, the Spaniard is determined to take the fight to his McLaren rival, who qualified on pole position and go for the win.

"It is not easy to manage, but at the moment we are thinking to beat McLaren and to beat Kimi because I think it is the only way to be right in the Championship," said Alonso, who starts third tomorrow.

"Sometimes we can do it, sometimes not, and the times we cannot we have to think and to score points, and I think tomorrow we have a good chance. We have the two Renaults in the top three, which means the car is competitive here, so let's try tomorrow."

Alonso lost out on a slot on the front-row of the grid after being caught out by tricky wind conditions at Turn 12 - but he was given some consolation because it means he will start from the clean side of the track.

"I think I was a little bit surprised about the wind in the back straight and a little bit in turn 12, maybe I lost half a tenth or something like that, which is enough to be second," he explained.

"But I am happy to be third, it is the clean side of the grid so we should have a better start and hopefully we can go through the first corner, not like Hungary, where we lost the nose.

"I think we have to finish tomorrow and we are in a perfect position to achieve a good result."