Flawless Alonso makes it four in a row

By James Foxall

28th June 2006

Canadian Grand Prix winner Fernando Alonso has denied that he’s having it all his own way this season, despite winning his fourth consecutive race.

The Spaniard started his Renault in pole position to dominate proceedings in Montreal. But afterwards he said: “It’s not as easy as it probably seems on TV – we’ve had a lot of pressure.

“Michael [Schumacher] was quick in Monaco when he started from the back, and Kimi [Raikkonen] had a mechanical problem in Monaco when he was pushing me. Here Kimi put a lot of pressure on in the opening stint, and he nearly got past me when I ran wide in turn 10.”

Alonso’s main challenger for the title Schumacher again finished in second place, and claimed he had the race pace to challenge his rival. The seven-times champion said: “I wished that the race could have kept on going for a bit longer. It was a shame there were not another 10 laps left. That would have made it more entertaining.

“However, we kept the damage as small as possible. We didn’t really have the perfect weekend, but we managed to have a good result finally, so we move on from here.”

But Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn warned: “This weekend we were simply not quick enough to overtake our main rivals. We have to make an extra effort to close the gap that separates us. As the saying goes, ‘never give up’, and we will be sticking to that!” Team boss Jean Todt added: “Let’s hope that we can reverse the trend and catch Renault. I still believe there is a chance. The strategy we were on to qualify with a lot of fuel in the car didn’t work this time.”

Ominously for Renault’s rivals, the French team is working on performance upgrades for its car. Alonso said: “We had a new package here in Canada that works pretty well. And we have some steps forward for the races in France and Germany, too. If we keep winning like this, it is the best form of defence for us. We need to keep attacking and keep winning races.”