Fuel-heavy Alonso eyes more points

Fernando Alonso is targeting another points haul from the Malaysian Grand Prix after getting his Renault into the top ten on the Sepang grid.

But the former world champion reckons he could have improved on ninth had he not been impeded by cars trundling around on in-laps as he completed his final flier in Q3.

"We achieved our first objective today, which was to get into Q3," Alonso said.

"We can now concentrate on our second objective which is to improve our pace in the race and to finish in the points.

"I could have done better in Q3 this afternoon as I was with Heidfeld on a fast lap while the others were going slowly, and that affected me a bit, which is a shame.

"I am sure that the race tomorrow will be interesting and I hope we can find our way into the points, just like in Melbourne."

Engineering director Pat Symonds said that Renault had carried a significant fuel load in qualifying to put the team in a stronger position for the race.

"I think we can be reasonably satisfied with our performance today," he said.

"We could see that while the times were reasonably close, the margin needed to obtain a good grid position was probably beyond us.

"As a result we took a tactical decision to fuel quite long and so ninth place was pretty acceptable."

After a terrible time in Melbourne, Alonso's team-mate Nelson Piquet showed much stronger form in Sepang practice, but will start only 13th after minor errors on his best Q2 laps.

"It's unfortunate for Nelson that he missed Q3 by a reasonably small margin, most of which can be accounted for by a couple of errors in turns two and four," Symonds said.

"He has had an excellent weekend and been constantly competitive.

"I'm sure that he is due a strong race here tomorrow."

Piquet added that he was much happier than in Australia, where he had started on the back row.

"I am relatively satisfied with my qualifying this afternoon," he said.

"Of course I must still improve, but I am not too far away from my team-mate and I cannot wait to see how the race goes tomorrow.

"My objective will be to do better than Melbourne and to reach the end of my second grand prix, and if possible to score some points."

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