Alonso plays down his third victory as meaning ‘nothing’

FERNANDO Alonso belittled his Formula 1 world title lead as meaning “nothing” after taking his 30th career victory.

“Before coming here we were not sure about the performance of the car,” said Alonso, who became the first driver to win three races this season.

“It’s true we were okay in Valencia. Red Bull were quicker than anybody there, but we took advantage of the mechanical problem Sebastian [Vettel] had and we won the race.

“In Silverstone we were okay in wet conditions, but a bit slower than Red Bull in dry conditions. Mark [Webber] won the race and he deserved it because he was the quickest.

“Yesterday we set pole in wet conditions again, which seems to suit our car but, in the dry, we again saw we are still not the quickest.

“Sebastian and Jenson put a lot of pressure on us, also [Lewis] Hamilton was extremely quick but he had some problems.

“At halfway through the season we have made a very good recovery when you think of where we started in the Jerez test where we were maybe two seconds off the pace.

“We are very happy with the points we have achieved in the first half,
but it means nothing because there are still another ten races in which we need to improve the car.”