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Title still wide open - Alonso

Fernando Alonso is confident the title is still in reach © Getty Images

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• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso
• |
• Lewis Hamilton
• |
• Mark Webber

• Teams:
• Ferrari
• |
• McLaren
• |
• Red Bull

Fernando Alonso believes the top five drivers in the championship will be "starting from zero" at Spa Francorchamps and the one who is the most consistent in the last seven races will win the title.

Alonso is currently fifth in the standings, just 20 points behind Mark Webber at the top of the table. And with 25 points for a win this season, he is still treating the championship as wide open.

"I think in the situation we are in now, with this very small difference [between the drivers], we all start from zero," he told Ferrari's website. "No one feels they are leading the championship and no one feels that they are fifth in the championship, we all feel that we are in a group so it's time to deliver now.

"I think we have to respect everyone. Up until Hungary McLaren and Hamilton were dominating the championship so we need to respect them and we know how strong they can be. Also we know Red Bull have a very competitive car and they are leading the championship with Webber, so it's going to be tough and it's going to be difficult but we are there.

"We are able to take the lead of the championship if we win one race. We know that all five drivers will fight until the last race but we need to use our experience, as a team Ferrari winning so many championships and my personal experience as well fighting for three championships. In the next seven races we need to score as many podiums as possible, I think consistency will be the key to this championship."

Red Bull was a second a lap faster than its competitors during qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix, but Alonso is not concerned and said that his rival's advantage could be explained by the style of the circuit.

"We have to look at the gap between Ferrari and the other teams, McLaren, Renault, Mercedes," he explained. "It was a couple of tenths to half a second in Germany and in Hungary it was the same. So we maintained our good level of performance, it was more that Red Bull was underperforming a little bit in Germany and overperforming in Hungary due to the characteristics of the Hungarian circuit. Medium and high-speed corners and not many straights meant it was a perfect circuit for Red Bull and we knew that. So we need to remain calm. The championship is 19 races long, and for the overall picture of the 19 races we have a very competitive package."

He said that there was no advantage to either being in the chasing pack or being the man leading the title race.

"Both cases are very similar. If you are the leader you are very stressed because every point you lose you think that maybe your advantage is disappearing and that is quit stressful to manage," he added. "If you are behind then obviously there is no room to make mistakes and you need to take every opportunity, so it's also very stressful because you have to recover some points."

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