Q & A with Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso: Yeah, impossible to do better. It sounds a bit repetitive, but the three teams in front are too far from the rest and we are fighting for seventh place, which is what we have been saying for a while.

Here we achieved that, there were no surprises. Thanks to Kovalainen's problem we finished sixth, otherwise we would have been seventh.

Q. Do you feel in no man's land now? Ahead of the rest but too far behind the leading teams?

FA: Well, it's a constant fight. In Barcelona we maybe were a little bit closer to the leading teams and we could have fought for one of the six first places. Here we were defending ourselves from Red Bull and a little bit further from the top. It will be like this for a few races.

Let's hope we can take a step forward and get closer to the top, but if Williams, Toyota or Red Bull improve a lot they would catch us so you are always fighting, but let's see if we can keep on moving forward.

Q. Do you have any improvements planned for Monaco?

FA: No, we don't have anything planned, but at Monaco is always difficult to set the car up so upgrades are always hard to evaluate anyway. It's more important to have a good set-up, which is always special compared to other tracks, and to have a good weekend, where everything goes right.

Q. Do you think we could see a change of scene at Monaco, with someone surprising the top three teams?

FA: We'll see. That's what we always think when going to Monaco or at least we all think Monaco is so different that things will change, but in the end it's always a McLaren or a Ferrari winning or Renault like in 2006. The cars that have been winning all season arrive at Monaco and win too so in the end we see less surprises than we initially expect.

Q. When will Renault introduce new updates?

FA: We are not making any predictions. It would be hard. They are working day and night to try to find new ideas and it could be tomorrow or in three months, it depends on how creative our designers are and how the tests work out.

But anyway, everybody is now more encouraged than they were a month ago, when it seemed there was no solution. But now we know that with three or four tenths we could be up there so everybody is trying to get that.

Q. Do you think you can be a couple of tenths faster on tracks that suit your car?

FA: I don't know what to expect. We are going to every track with the aim of doing our best, to try to have fun, because we don't have the pressure of being fighting for the championship, so if it goes well, great, but if it goes bad we'll try to get it right.

Q. Have you been able to confirm the improvements shown in Barcelona?

FA: Yes, I think so. I think the car has taken an important step forward. With this car, in Barcelona we would have been fifth, and here we would have scored another three points, and seven points in two races was unthinkable when we finished in Bahrain.

So this race has confirmed we have taken a step forward and that we are right behind the top teams. And now we need to take the most important step.