Renault ready to bounce back - Alonso

Fernando Alonso is confident Renault can make up for their disappointment at Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

For the first time this season neither Alonso, nor team-mate Jarno Trulli finished a race, with both their cars suffering driveshaft failures at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Trulli pulled off the Montreal track at the first corner, while Alonso went out on lap 44, allowing BAR to close the gap to Renault in the constructors’ championship to just nine points.

But Alonso feels he and Trulli will again be strong as he said: “To be honest, we were quite surprised by our competitiveness in Canada, and that certainly makes us hopeful we can be strong in Indy.

“On paper, Indianapolis is not our best circuit, so we need to be cautious making predictions.

“However, the car was actually quite strong there last year, and as a team, we have been very strong in the last three or four races. So we have every reason to be optimistic.”

“Our reliability this season has been excellent, and I think the failures in Montreal were probably more bad luck than anything else.

“I would expect things to be back to normal on that front for Indy. It has similar downforce levels to Canada, and we were very quick there. So maybe we can be as well in Indy. I’m looking forward to a good race.”