Alonso furious with Spanish media

Fernando Alonso is not enjoying his home Grand Prix and yesterday evening he had a major blow up with some of the Spanish journalists.

It all relates to an autograph signing session on Thursday in the pit lane, where he was surrounded by photographers, so couldn't get to the fans. He lost his temper and left the pits, then came back when the photographers had gone and signed the autographs.

This was reported in El Mundo in particular as Alonso being rude to fans and showing arrogance towards poor people who've saved up to see their hero. Alonso was very angry with this treatment: "I'm furious, " he said. "I don't like it when things are said to set me against the fans."

When he had calmed down he gave an interesting view on how he and Renault stand at the moment in this critical weekend when so many teams have new parts on the car.

"The updates have given us more downforce, more grip. The car is more consistent now, but it's not a magic solution.

"The situation is better than 2008, when we had a car that was difficult to drive, but this is the moment to score some big points because in two or three races time most of the grid will be out of the championship, where I want to be."

This last point is the important one as far as Ferrari and McLaren are concerned and it's why the next few races are so important. McLaren were making good progress, but were flattered by the circuit in Bahrain and they will be lucky to get a car into the top ten in qualifying, while Ferrari have moved forward, but we will only find out later in qualifying whether it is enough to get them into the hunt. They have to start racking up the points this weekend and in Monaco or they will be out of the championship.