Alonso not giving up on title yet

The Spaniard drifted to 92 points off series leader Sebastian Vettel after the Canadian Grand Prix - when his hopes of victory were wrecked by bad luck with the timing of the weather, and then a clash with Jenson Button that left him unable to continue.

Although the deficit to Vettel means he needs a run of four race wins, with his rival not scoring, to take the lead of the title chase - the Spaniard is refusing to concede it is all over.

"No, the title is not gone because mathematically it is still alive," said Alonso, whose best result this season has been second place in the Monaco Grand Prix.

"We saw some retirements in the past years, as Hamilton did in Monza and Singapore last year. And if you win two races, and Vettel retires, the gap can close a lot.

"But it is true it is not in our hands, so we just need to concentrate race by race, try to do our best race-by-race, be on podium and try to win some grands prix.

"It up to them (Red Bull Racing) to do some mistakes but, if not, they have a very good position in the championship."

Alonso believes he had a car capable of fighting for the victory in Montreal - but conceded that bad luck with the timing of the stops cost him badly.

"In the dry it was very possible [to win]; while in the wet you need to be lucky with the positions.

"At the point when we fitted the intermediates early on we could have won the race, but luck compensates through the year so maybe Valencia is extremely lucky for us and we win. We hope so."