F1: `Four-horse title race won`t last long`

[Rory Phoulorie]

Friday 4th May 2007

Fernando Alonso reckons the present four-way fight for the Drivers' title won't last beyond the halfway point of the season.

After three grands prix, four drivers are involved in the battle for this year's Drivers' Championship title, two McLaren and two Ferrari drivers.

The lead in the standings is a tie between Alonso, his team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, while Felipe Massa is lying in fourth place, just five points adrift.

However, Alonso feels that it's only a matter of time before one or even two of the four fall off the pace.

"The two Ferrari and McLaren drivers will probably fight together until the middle of the season," the Spaniard told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

"At the end of the World Championship there will probably only two or three drivers fighting for the title. Then one or two won't have luck or achieve not so good results as before."

And the reigning World Champion is hoping to be one of the drivers left standing, starting with a boost at next weekend's Spanish GP.

However, Alonso claims he won't be tackle the race any different to how he usually does, even though it is his home grand prix.

"My goal is to win," he said. "When I race here, I want to win. When I race in Bahrain, I want to win. The same goes for Monaco.

"I know that thousands of fans come to the circuit to see me, but when I am driving in Bahrain, five million Spaniards are watching me on television anyway."

The Spaniard, though, concedes he could face still competition from not only the Ferraris but also BMW's Nick Heidfeld next Sunday afternoon.

"So far there is a small gap between the two top teams and BMW," he said.

"But there may be no gap on some tracks. Nick will surely fight for top positions as in Bahrain.

"We will see some races in which not only McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari, but also Nick will fight for a podium place and possibly even victory."


http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3213_2106451,00.html