Former double Formula 1 World Champion Fernando Alonso is adamant that he has not yet given up hope of reclaiming his crown in 2009 – after he argues Renault made ‘a big step forward’ in Shanghai last weekend and lauding the team’s ‘amazing job’.

After two grands prix in which he barely scraped into the final Q3 top ten shoot-out in qualifying, Alonso stormed to the outside of the front row of the grid for the Chinese Grand Prix, albeit on a lower fuel load than any of his rivals. That notwithstanding, the Spaniard is confident there is plenty more still to come and that – 17 points shy of the championship lead or not – he is far from out of the equation.
“I feel we can still fight to win the championship,” Alonso is quoted as having said by international news agency AFP. “It is still a very early part of the season, but I am confident. It is not too late. The team has done an amazing job so far and we showed in China that we have the pace to reach Q3.
“Unfortunately, I started the race light on fuel and I made my first stop under the safety car. That pretty much ended my race as I went from the front row to the back of the pack. It was just one of those days when the decisions we took didn’t go our way, but I think we can have a different kind of race in Bahrain.”