Alonso pins hopes on strong start

The Red Bull team has been dominant so far this weekend, and secured a front-row lockout on Saturday, with Alonso over a whole second behind pole-setter Sebastian Vettel.

Alonso said his Ferrari team had achieved the best possible result with third position.

"I think we found a big gap between Red Bull and us this weekend," said Alonso. "We maximised our potential today. We did our job to be the best of the rest.

"Congratulations to Red Bull, they have dominated the weekend and deserve this front row.

"Hopefully tomorrow we can make it difficult in the race because so far it has been too easy."

The Spaniard reckons the start and the first lap will be crucial on a circuit where overtaking is virtually impossible.

"The start we know is important," he said. "We know at this track is very difficult to overtake. We know the strategy is important as well. The start, the first corner and the first lap is 60-70 percent of the final result.

"Hopefully we can make a good start like in Hockenheim, gain a position and fight a bit."

He added: "The dirty side here is quite bad, maybe the worst of the calendar, but at the same time, we had some good starts this year starting on dirty side and bad starts starting on the clean side.

"It will be down to the start and how the things go when the red lights are off, but no doubts that we have a good chance tomorrow to overtake the cars before the start."