Fernando Alonso, the winner here last year, expressed his frustration after only managing the 14th fastest time of 1:37.328 in the afternoon practice session yesterday.
His rookie team-mate, Nelson Piquet Jr, was just behind on 1:37.331 and the indications are that the team have their work cut out for them ahead of the crucial qualifying session today.
Alonso conceded that Renault have a lot of catching up to do before they can even think about challenging McLaren, Ferrari and even BMW Sauber.
“I would like to have wheel-to-wheel racing with McLaren or Ferrari in a normal race. That is the target for the season. But we are too far behind at this point,” he said.
The 26-year-old bagged five points for a fourth-place finish in the season-opener in Melbourne last Sunday but attributed it more to the fact that only seven cars finished the 58-lap race than to the true measure of his car's pace.
Alonso and Piquet Jr both missed out on making the top 10 of the final qualifying session in the Australian GP. The Spaniard was 13th fastest while Piquet Jr was 19th on the starting grid and retired after a first-lap incident.
However, Alonso was optimistic that they would be more competitive as the season progresses.
“You are always optimistic at the start of the year. There are a lot of races to come, a lot of time. I really think we will close that gap and improve the car quite a lot.”
Alonso took his first pole position in his debut in Sepang in 2003. He went on to hand Renault their first Malaysian GP win in 2005 and repeated the feat last year for McLaren.
Other than the two race victories, his impressive resume in Sepang included two third-place finishes in 2003 and 2006.
Source: http://www.thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2008/3/22/sports/20724697&sec=sports
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