• Belgian GP - Qualifying

Alonso eyes podium at Spa

ESPN Staff
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Fernando Alonso sees Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix as another opportunity to challenge for a podium.

Alonso managed to qualify fourth on the grid in wet conditions and will start behind the two Mercedes and the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel. With Mercedes' reliability problems in recent grand prix weekends, Alonso thinks there's a chance he could fight for a podium on Sunday.

"I think the possibility is there, no doubt," he said. "We are in a good position in fourth and we have some people around us with good race pace, like Ricciardo and the Williams and we need to fight hard to be on the podium. But we know the Mercedes - even if they look very quick - they have had some mechanical problems in the last races and we need to be there to take any opportunities."

Alonso said his competitiveness had exceeded expectations this weekend, especially beating team-mate Kimi Raikkonen by a significant margin.

"It has been a good surprise, the weekend in general. We will see how we can finish it tomorrow and hopefully taking good points. We expected to have Williams quite strong here, but maybe with qualifying being wet it masked their true pace, so maybe tomorrow in dry conditions we can expect them to be very competitive.

"Also, it has been a circuit that I have never done anything special here - this is my second best qualifying after 2007 with the McLaren - but now I'm in front of the Williams and one second in front of my team-mate who has won here four times. It's been a perfect weekend so far."

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