Alonso realistic over chances

The Spaniard, who crashed out of second place in last weekend's race in a controversial incident with Ralf Schumacher's Williams, says that although Renault has made important steps forward with its R24 car, it will not guarantee frontrunning pace in Germany this time around.

"It will be difficult," said Alonso. "In Monaco we had a fantastic weekend, we finished first and third in the qualifying and probably first and second in the race with no problems and it was a very strong weekend for Renault. But Monaco is a very special track and here is different, maybe things will come back to normal.

"But, anyway, I think we have improved the car a lot. In Monaco we saw a little bit of that and here in Nurburgring I hope we can confirm that Renault is closing the gap with Ferrari and we can fight with them on some occasions."

Alonso says that, despite his realism going into this weekend's race weekend, the team has more self-belief than ever.

"The team has much more confidence now, after the last two races," he added. "In Barcelona we finished third and fourth; in Monte Carlo we were there, we won the race, and I think from a reliability point of view we are very strong, we have finished all the races with no problems in the car and we are looking quite competitive so I think we are up and rolling with good confidence and ready to get a good result and finish the race again."