Alonso: Turkey can be Good for Renault

For the only time this season, all the teams are facing an unknown challenge.

Spaniard Alonso, 26 points clear of McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen with six races remaining, said the novelty and the expected hot conditions could be good news for him.

"Normally we are quick on the hot tracks," the Spaniard told a news conference on Thursday. "We saw that in Malaysia, in Bahrain.

"I think all these new types of circuit, with high temperatures, are not bad news for our car so I'm really confident to have a good race here," he added.

Alonso has the disadvantage of a low qualifying position after finishing 11th in the last race in Budapest, won by Raikkonen.

However McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya failed to finish that race and will have to qualify even earlier on a track sure to get quicker during Saturday's session.

"We have to be really concentrated this weekend, we need a good result," said Alonso, whose team are 12 points ahead of McLaren in the constructors' standings.

"I think the approach for this weekend is to try to win the race, try to beat McLaren," added the winner of six of the season's 13 races so far.

"It's not an easy goal because we saw how competitive they were in the last two or three months, but we have to approach it thinking like that."