Alonso aiming to put the brakes on Schumacher

WORLD champion Fernando Alonso aims to thwart Michael Schumacher’s bid for Monaco Grand Prix history by adding the most glamorous race on the Formula One calendar to his CV.

Alonso is rapidly ticking off his lifelong ambitions, having become the youngest world champion before being the first Spaniard to win on home ground two weeks ago.

Next on his list is a win in Monaco, the jewel in Formula One’s crown and a race Schumacher has won five times, one short of Ayrton Senna’s record.

“There are some circuits where a victory seems to give more motivation, like Monaco, Indianapolis and for me Barcelona,” Alonso said.

“They are circuits with history in motor racing.”

But, as ever with the 24-year-old, he is taking a measured approach, insisting he will take no extra risks to add Monaco to his list of conquered circuits.

The Renault driver knows the dangers posed by over-exuberance on the Armco-lined streets of the principality — he crashed heavily two years ago attempting to lap a backmarker when chasing victory.

“A victory here is great but if you cannot win you have to keep taking points for the championship,” said the Spaniard, who leads Schumacher by 15 points.

“Now the goal is to win the championship again. This championship is getting really interesting and really close. It has been a close fight with Ferrari so far in the last three or four races.

“The next challenge is to beat them every race. It’s not very easy. They are coming up very strongly.

“In front of us we have a long championship with some difficulties coming and one of them will be this weekend.”

Monaco traditionally gives underdogs a rare chance to shine and Alonso is keeping his fingers crossed that Renault are not victims of a giant-killing.

“In Monaco there are always some surprises as we saw last year with Williams finishing second and third. There will be some teams that are surprising and in front of top teams.

“Hopefully this is not happening to us and we keep the front row. Our main rivals were Ferrari in the last three or four races and I think we should look at them. You need more luck than normal because sometimes you go off in the qualifying or the race, over the kerbs, and here you cannot make any mistakes because you are in the wall and out of the race.”

Alonso managed to stay clear of the walls when practice began on Wednesday and quickly found his rhythm, ending the day second-fastest of the race drivers.

With no worries over conserving his engine, Williams test driver Alex Wurz was fastest in a time of one minute 15.907 seconds, just ahead of Honda counterpart Anthony Davidson.

McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya was the fastest race driver, followed close behind by Alonso, with Schumacher ended second practice a subdued 15th.