Symonds defends strategy change

Alonso was stuck behind the Ferrari driver for several laps following Schumacher's first pitstop, after which the German struggled with his tyres, lapping over two seconds off the pace.

Although Alonso's car was much faster, the Spaniard was unable to pass and so Renault decided to make him stop earlier than planned to jump Schumacher once he pitted.

The move didn't work, however, and when Schumacher pitted on the next lap he returned right in front of Alonso.

The world champion said after the race that maybe his planned strategy would have allowed him to beat Schumacher after all, but Symonds said that was unlikely.

"I think the Renault was the faster car but in fact, this appearance was probably exaggerated by the fact that Schumacher had such a dreadful middle stint," said Symonds.

"With Fernando stuck behind him, we were left with very few options to try and capitalise on our performance advantage, as we believe our planned lap for the second stop was, contrary to what the figures on television seemed to indicate, very close to his.

"We pulled in early because running longer was unlikely to pay off for us, as the Ferrari's tyres seemed very quick at the start of a stint. So we tried to get Fernando a lap of clean air to beat Michael in the pits and it didn't quite work but as the phrase goes, 'nothing ventured, nothing gained'.

"And in this case, nothing lost either."

Alonso finished second, two seconds behind Schumacher.