Alonso Optimistic of Strong Weekend

Spanish driver Fernando Alonso says he is very confident his Renault team will be competitive at this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix.

Alonso will be racing at the Spa circuit for the second time in his career after the Belgian race did not take place in 2003.

The Spaniard, who raced there with the Minardi team in 2001, spent today's practice session acclimatizing to the circuit and posted the ninth quickest time of the session.

"I have only raced here once before, three years ago, so my aims for today were simple: to select the tyres, and then to get used to the circuit again and build up my confidence," said Alonso. "The tyre choice is quite straightforward and although I think we have some more performance to come from the car, overall we are quite quick.

"I am very confident that we can be competitive for the rest of the weekend."

Renault are fighting for second place in the Constructors' Championship with the BAR team, who are eight points behind with five races left.

Alonso's teammate Jarno Trulli did not have a good day, the Italian struggling with his car's handling on his way to the 16th quickest time.

"I had a bad day to be honest," said Trulli, who will leave Renault at the end of the season. "I struggled with the handling of the car - there was very little grip, and that makes the handling inconsistent, switching between oversteer and understeer.

"If it rains all day tomorrow, it will be tough to improve the car, but we will work hard on the data this evening to try and find what is causing the problem."