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Alonso welcomes Massa extension

Fernando Alonso is happy Felipe Massa is staying at Ferrari © Sutton Images

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• News:
• Ferrari renews Massa's contract until 2012
  

• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso
• |
• Felipe Massa

• Teams:
• Ferrari

Fernando Alonso has welcomed the news that current team-mate Felipe Massa has extended his contract at Ferrari until at least the end of 2012.

Ferrari announced on Wednesday that Massa would be staying put, ending rumours that Robert Kubica or Mark Webber might switch to the Maranello based team to replace the Brazilian.

"I am very pleased because it means the same group will be working together for another two years," Alonso is quoted in Ticionline. "Stability is very important to the success of a team. I feel very well with Felipe - there is a lot of respect between us and that creates the harmony that is necessary to be together for the long term."

Ferrari has struggled to make the expected steps forward over the last few races, with Alonso reported to be unhappy with progress at the team. But Alonso played down suggestions that he is ruing a lack of development with the F10 car since winning the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

"It is not right to say that the development stopped; the few tenths to Red Bull has been the same, so that means we have been improving, as have they. The truth is that in Spain we did not take the step forward that we expected, while others moved ahead."

Alonso also acknowledged that the continued work on Ferrari's F-duct system has occupied much of the engineers time.

"I think it has been useful to work on it, although we have not been able to exploit this work completely effectively. I see that other teams have also had difficulties, while those (McLaren) who had it from the beginning retain the advantage."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.