Analysis: Alonso mastery is awe-inspiring

The reigning world champion had one of his strongest weekends of the season at Silverstone last weekend, scoring for the first time in his career a cleansweep of pole position, fastest lap and race win.

The British Grand Prix victory also made Alonso the first man to score either a win or a second place in the opening eight rounds of a world championship.

The only two to have ever come close to that feat were Alain Prost in 1988 and Michael Schumacher in 1994. In both cases, though, they failed to score in the eighth round - which coincidentally also took place at Silverstone.

But perhaps the most impressive statistic of Alonso's 2006 campaign is the fact that he has now scored an unprecedented 92.5% of the maximum possible championship points - more than any other champion has ever had in his assault year, including Nigel Mansell in 1992 and Michael Schumacher in 2002 and 2004.

"He has scored 74 points out of 80 so it's remarkable," Ferrari team principal Jean Todt remarked after Sunday's race. "He's quick, competitive and reliable, so it makes things more difficult for the others."

Alonso is of course benefitting from a scoring system that offers second position eight points, compared to six points in previous times.

But the Spaniard is still some way ahead of the current field and now has 13 Grand Prix wins, surpassing this season the likes of Kimi Raikkonen and former world champion Jacques Villeneuve in the total career wins.

Alonso needs only one more win to get clear of David Coulthard and position himself as second only to Schumacher among the current drivers.

"Fernando is doing an exceptional job by carrying on with what he did last year," Flavio Briatore, Alonso's team boss at Renault, told Gazzetta dello Sport.

"Let's not forget that in 2005 we were fighting against faster cars than ours. Now he drives with a lot less pressure, he has more confidence in his abilities and is perfectly integrated in the team."

With Alonso leaving Renault to join McLaren next season, however, Briatore admitted he was sorry to see the dominant partnership between the French team and the Spaniard world champion about to come to an end.

"Since Fernando has been with us you can count the retirements on the fingers of one hand," the Italian commented. "We are good at giving him a car that never runs into problems. We are a solid team.

"Honestly I can't remember us doing any stupid things since I've been here. And if we did any, we have been good in not letting them show.

"We are sorry to lose him, but in life you never know what happens. Obviously this is a perfect team for him, but let's see what happens in 2007."

McLaren F1 CEO Martin Whitmarsh admitted seeing Alonso thoroughly trash his opposition, including the Woking team, presented a bittersweet experience, as they take solace in the knowledge that the Spaniard will be theirs next season.

"We rated Fernando quite highly, otherwise we would not have hired him, so we have mixed feelings about how well Fernando is driving at the moment," Whitmarsh said after the British Grand Prix.

"His consistency is astounding; he has grown in stature, and he never was one for making a lot of mistakes, but his performance this year has been incredible. Renault have done a good job as well, and it may not feel pleasant now, but we hope it will feel pleasant next year."

Whitmarsh also estimated that Alonso is today an even better driver than he was when McLaren signed him. "Yes, I think he is," he said when asked about it.

"He clearly has been a very, very talented driver, and we thought that when we signed him. But we are very happy with the progress he has made since."