Fernando Alonso admits he is looking ahead to next weekend's Turkish Grand Prix with renewed enthusiasm, on the back of a home outing in Barcelona that if ultimately frustrating convinced him that
Renault is now firmly back on the right path once more to recapturing its former glories.
A superb performance from the former double
Formula 1 World Champion earned Renault its first front row grid slot of the 2008 campaign when the 26-year-old had failed to better ninth place in qualifying for the opening three races in Australia, Malaysia and Bahrain. Though that lap was somewhat fuel-aided, Alonso was nevertheless running up in a strong fifth position still behind only the Ferraris, ex team-mate
Lewis Hamilton's McLaren-Mercedes and
Robert Kubica's BMW-Sauber when his engine exploded just past the midway stage, breaking the hearts of the thousands of partisan fans thronging the Circuit de Catalunya in support of their hero.
Despite the eventual disappointment, however, the Spaniard insisted he had been boosted by the greatly improved showing produced by a raft of aerodynamic and mechanical updates following the first three flyaway grands prix and adamant it was not merely a flash in the pan on home soil.
At least we were fighting with the top cars, he told the
Irish Independent, when in the first races we were so far back we couldn't even see them. In Barcelona, you could see them and even touch them. This is the way to go and I'm left with a good feeling.
We undoubtedly lost an opportunity to score some important points, he added, which would have been very good for team morale. Both cars retired from the race, but the performance was there and I believe fifth place was achievable; we showed good pace and I believe that this is what we should take from the weekend.
