Alonso: wheels could come off in Indianapolis

FERNANDO ALONSO expects a tough time in this weekend’s United States Grand Prix, despite heading to Indianapolis on the back of four straight wins.

The world champion dominated in Canada last weekend as he had at Spain, Monaco and Silverstone beforehand, building up a healthy 25-point championship lead in the process.

However, the Renault driver admits he has always struggled to find the perfect set-up at Indianapolis, a track which his title rival Michael Schumacher has generally made his own.

Alonso said: “I am not too confident, to be honest. We never got the right set-up at Indianapolis in the last three years.

“I don’t know why but it has always been a difficult circuit for us. So I expect a tough race again.

“It seems that this year the competition is between Ferrari and us so why not think about the podium?”

Schumacher is typically bullish about his chances but expects tyres to play a key part in a race last year which was marred by a 14-car pull-out over dangerous rubber.

A repeat of Michelin’s problems is unlikely but Schumacher believes their performance compared to his own Bridgestone tyres could still be influential.

The Ferrari driver, who was a fortunate second in Montreal, said: “It all depends on the tyre situation. On the car side we know what we had for last weekend. We struggled a little bit.

“We managed to keep the damage as small as possible and get them to work reasonably at the end, but we need to see how much they suit this kind of circuit.”

Schumacher has struggled to match Alonso for most of the year, winning just two races to the Spaniard’s six, but he is still enjoying the battle.

The seven-time world champion lost his crown to Alonso last year after Ferrari slipped well off the pace, so he is relishing a better chance to put the young pretender in his place.

He said: “Last year was, to a certain degree, frustrating. This year we are having fun.

“Not all the time — I mean you can be having more fun in winning, but you can’t win all the time so the better one wins who is doing a better job in the end and we have only been able to do that twice.

“There have been six times for them so far so we need to do a better job.”