Alonso Welcomes McLaren's 'Help'

World Championship leader Fernando Alonso cheekily thanked rivals McLaren for handing him second place in the closing stages of the Belgian Grand Prix

The Renault driver had been running third late in the race, two places behind title rival Kimi Raikkonen, when he was gifted the runner-up position after Juan Pablo Montoya crashed out of the race.

And with memories of the Turkish Grand Prix still fresh in his memory, when Montoya threw away second place on the penultimate lap, Alonso acknowledged his late race fortune.

"I had some help from McLaren and I was able to take two more points," said Alonso with a grin on his face. "But it was not really important. The third place was good for me, but second is even better."

Alonso admitted that he had been thinking of the World Championship for much of the afternoon, which is why he decided not to take any risks.

"The conditions were pretty difficult for everyone today, so there was no need to take a risk at this point of the championship," he said. "We just tried to make no mistakes.

"Before each pitstop there was a little bit of a conversation (about tyre choice), but I think we did the right thing. There was no sense to take risks in this part of the championship, so we would rather keep it on the safe side."

Alonso now had a 25-point advantage over Raikkonen in the title chase with three races to go.