Renault expected more from Monaco

Fernando Alonso stole past both his team-mate Jarno Trulli and McLaren's David Coulthard with a rapid sequence of laps either side of his second and final pit stop to claim fifth place, with Trulli staying behind him to score yet more points for the team.

Managing director Flavio Briatore clearly expected rather more, judging by his post-race comments. "The only positive thing out of this race," growled the Italian, "is that we brought both cars through to the chequered flag and scored some points. We thought that we would be more competitive on this track and we were surprised in the race by a much stronger performance from Williams."

Alonso, at least, was happy: "I think it was a quite good end to a difficult weekend for me, since I hadn't quite managed to get the maximum out of the car in practice and qualifying. My fifth place is certainly a good result and I'm glad to now be third in the drivers' championship."

Trulli blamed his smaller than hoped for points haul on traffic, a common complaint around the narrow streets of the princicpality: "That was disappointing, as I'd been competitive all weekend. I pushed hard throughout the race but I got stuck in traffic and lost quite a lot of time behind the backmarkers and then one position after my second pit stop [when Alonso got past]. The three points that I scored are a very small consolation."