Alonso Confident of Stronger Race Pace

Spaniard Fernando Alonso is optimistic his Renault team will be more competitive at tomorrow's Brazilian Grand Prix after finishing down in ninth place in qualifying.

"I am confident we can be more competitive tomorrow than we seemed this afternoon," said Alonso, who last year finished in third place in Brazil. "The car was understeering a bit too much in the slow corners during qualifying but the overall balance was still quite good in spite of this.

"We will need to wait for the race to see what strategies our competitors have but I think things will be better for us. The R24 was setting constant and competitive times on the long practice runs we did yesterday and today."

Alonso outqualified teammate Jacques Villeneuve, who continued with his unimpressive run of performances by posting the 14th time of the day.

"I had a bad lap - it was as simple as that," said the Canadian. "The car was handling better this morning but then started understeering on the qualifying lap and I couldn't hook things up as I would have liked.

"Tomorrow's race will be demanding but I am still hoping for a points finish."