Alonso downplays Renault's progress

The two-time champion and his team admitted before the Barcelona test that they were pinning their hopes for a better season on the developments tested this week at the Spanish track.

Alonso topped the times with the revised car in yesterday's session and confessed the upgrades were a step forward after a poor start to the season.

But the Spaniard reckons Renault have not progressed enough to be ahead of the midfield pack.

"The car is better, that's true, but we haven't made so much progress," Alonso was quoted as saying by AS newspaper. "We still haven't managed to escape the midfield group.

"It's very close. Things haven't changed so much because the others have evolved too. We are still more or less in the same place as before this test.

"We are in a group where, if everything goes well, you qualify eighth on the grid, but if you fail, then you have Red Bull, the Toyota and Williams ahead of you and you are 14th and outside of Q3."

Alonso, however, said it was not easy to judge where Renault stand ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix next week.

"The day was good and I'm happy with the developments, but we need to continue improving because the rest have done that too. It's hard to say where we are compared to the rest. We will only know next week."