Alonso praised for Montreal heroics

"A great race from Alonso, I thought," Head said. "Slightly odd timing of the last pitstop maybe, but still a great drive. He was relatively slow in the first 20 laps [due to a graining problem on the softer Michelin tyre], then very strong for the next five laps up to his late first pit stop. From then on, in the second and third stints, he was very strong and clawed it back. I think he's going to have a good future in Formula 1."

Asked if he had been surprised by the Renault pace, Head added: "Yes, but an awful amount of nonsense is talked about their engine - it's within 30 or 40bhp of the other engines at the front.

"And remember, they got two hours running in the dry - in private testing on Friday morning - which allowed them to run on the softer tyre. We did not risk that based on somebody else's data, so if any of the other teams had done the same they would have been half a second better on every lap of the race.

"Maybe we would have chosen the softer tyre - had we had some dry running. They're doing a very good job - but they're choosing to talk the chassis up and the engine down."