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Alonso goes a year without a win

BARCELONA, Spain - Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, after a year without a win, worries that it could be some time before he stands on top of the Formula 1 podium again.

Alonso was sixth in his home race, the 2014 Spanish GP, though nearly 90sec behind Mercedes' race winner Lewis Hamilton. Alonso’s team mate Kimi Raikkonen was lapped.

Alonso said: "We were not in a position to fight for more wins in these 12 months; we need to do better. It probably will not happen soon because we've been lapped today."

‘MERCEDES OUT OF REACH’

Since Alonso's win at the 2013 Spanish GP only three drivers have won races - Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, Hamilton and his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg. Mercedes has won all five races so far in 2014, ending Vettel's run of nine in a row at the end of 2013 - mainly, it's believed, because of the performance of its power unit.

Alonso is third overall in the Drivers' standings, 51 points behind Hamilton, who has 100. Ferrari is third in the Constructors' table  with 66 points to Mercedes' 197 and Red Bull's 84.

Alonso said: "Maybe Mercedes is out of reach. We need to target second in the championship - if we can."

Alonso finished the season-opening 2014 Australian GP in March, 35sec behind winner Rosberg and was the same gap behind Hamilton at the 2014 Malaysian GP. In Bahrain  it was 32sec but in China, where he finished third, the gap had shrunk to a still hefty 23sec.

With all the top teams having brought upgrades to Barcelona, Alonso said the results showed Ferrari had made no gains on its rivals and needed to do more to trouble Mercedes.

MORE WORK NEEDED

Alonso said: "I think we did the maximum today. We are not totally happy, finishing so far behind the leaders. We need to work a little bit extra. It seemswe are more or less in the same position as at the start (of the season).

"We bring new parts, they brought new parts, and we are equal. So we need to do extra."

Raikkonen was seventh, passed by Alonso in the closing stages and demanding an explanation for the decision to let Alonso pit ahead of him despite being behind on the track.

Alonso, who switched to a three-stop strategy, said he had asked to come in because his tyres were suffering heavy degradation and fighting for sixth or seventh gave him little pleasure anyway.

"The intention was to keep Vettel behind. Between Kimi and me, whoever finished first was not the priority. It was to stop Vettel and we didn't manage it," he said.
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