"At the start I thought it would be difficult to get a good amount of points, and even more so after the 17 laps that I had to do behind Villeneuve" said Alonso in a press conference. Certainly, his ex team mate, now with Sauber, was a very complicated rival to overtake, with the aggravating factor of Albert Park not being a circuit that invites you to overtake. "Then I thought that seventh position was the best I could hope for".

 

Nevertheless, once he overtook the Canadian, his race towards the podium was meteoric, overtaking another ex team mate, Jarno Trulli. "The car went very fast, so I began to overtake people in `pit stops' and in the end everything worked out perfectly" explained the Spaniard, who later admitted that: "The team said to me that my third place gives more satisfaction since Fisichella�s victory was expected but mine wasn�t. I am leaving Australia with my morale sky high".

 

Regarding the World Championship Alonso�s result is superb, since the great favourite, Michael Schumacher, did not win even one point. "These are six points that I did not expect and six points that I have over Michael in the championship" said the driver who hopes to carry on a good run in the next few races. "In these first few races if we do not have any reliability problems, we are going to win a good number of important points, these are going to keep us up with the leaders". So far, Renault already has 16 points and leads the World Constructors� Championship.