Alonso stays realistic on Renault's form

The Spaniard benefited from the chaotic race to finish in fourth position, having started from 11th place on the grid after Renault failed to match the leading cars' pace.

Alonso admitted he was pleased with the outcome, but the two-time champion has warned that Renault need to improve quickly in order to fight for point-scoring positions on pure pace.

"I'm very happy with the result. All the simulations we did showed us in eighth or ninth and finishing fourth was unthinkable," Alonso told Spanish daily AS.

"It was a lot better than expected, but we can't forget that without the retirements we could have easily finished outside the points.

"We are very happy with fourth, but if we continue like this we are going to be disappointed. Maybe in Malaysia, if both Ferraris, BMWs and so on finish the race, we are going to be outside of the points.

"That's why we have to do something immediately, try to improve in qualifying and get into Q3.

"Then we must be better in the race. It's true that I had a lot of traffic and bad luck with the Safety Car, but in other circumstances we wouldn't have done so well and we need to improve that."

Alonso looked set to finish in fifth place after McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen passed him on the penultimate lap, in a move celebrated by team boss Ron Dennis, who gestured in delight.

Kovalainen, however, pushed the rev limiter by mistake on the pit straight and Alonso took the opportunity to pass him ahead of the final lap.

The Spaniard, who had a bitter relationship with Dennis last year, admitted the pass tasted especially good.

"After I saw on the screens what he (Dennis) did from the McLaren pitwall, I did the same when I overtook him (Kovalainen)," he said.

"I had the chance to pass a McLaren and I took it. It feels good that it was with that car, because it was clearly superior and their normal position was in front of us."