Stars are bright for Fernando to end Schumacher’s reign
The 23-year-old Real Madrid fan from Oviedo in northern Spain may be little known in far-flung parts of the world, but his supremacy in the hottest race in Formula One history in yesterday’s gruelling battle in the desert proved he is ready to push the seven-times champion aside.
“It was my third consecutive race without problems - none at all - and my second win,” said Alonso after his Bahrain Grand Prix triumph.
“It has been fantastic all weekend. I have never felt this before and to be on top of the championship is wonderful for me and for the team. It is like a dream. I am feeling so good now.
“To score 26 points out of 30 possible in the opening three races is just brilliant. But we have to stay cautious, of course. We have done only three races and there are 19 in the season.
“It is a long season. But I think that if we stay competitive like this, as we are now, and if we avoid mechanical problems, then we will be hard to beat.”
Alonso said he felt the heat from defending champion Michael Schumacher’s new Ferrari F2005 in the opening laps, but once the German had retired after 12 laps, he was able to take it easy.
“It was hotter than Malaysia, so it was the hottest race I ever raced. The car was perfect, especially after my first stop, and we proved again that our strongest point is the long runs. It is something unusual but I think useful for this championship.
“The car is very nice to drive again and I had a good fight with Michael for a few laps then with Jarno (Trulli in a Toyota), and after the first pit stop I had a bit of room to be able to be a bit more conservative.
“Obviously, it was very close against Michael in the first few laps. I think he was quicker than me in the first part of the race but it is very difficult to overtake and I was quite sure that my long runs would be better than him so I was not too worried if I had Michael in front of me, if he had overtaken me, because I knew that our strongest point should be at the end.”
Alonso said he was looking forward now to going back to Europe and beating Ferrari on their home territory in the San Marino Grand Prix.
“We will arrive at Imola as one of the favourites, one of the teams to beat, and this is good,” he said. “Hopefully Ferrari are not in the best moment; they have improved with the new car but still the tyres are probably not giving them too much and I think the work Michelin did in these races is just unbelievable and I hope it will continue like this.
“If I had not had the rain in Australia on Saturday, it could be even better for me, but in a way for the team it has been a fantastic start in these hot races.
“Now we arrive in new conditions in Europe, tracks that all the teams know very well and we are allowed to test quite a lot and we will see how the car is there. So far the car has been difficult to beat.”
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