Alonso: Nico has advantage in title race

McLaren driver Fernando Alonso has claimed that Nico Rosberg has a fantastic opportunity to pip his teammate and defending World Champion Lewis Hamilton to the world title.

Currently, Rosberg is 39 points clear of Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen and 43 points ahead of Hamilton.

Alonso, who is a two-time World Champion, explained that the German Mercedes driver has the upper hand as Hamilton’s season so far has been plagued by reliability issues, which could be a key factor come the end of the season.

He also compared Rosberg’s situation to former Red Bull driver Mark Webber, when the Australian challenged Sebastian Vettel all the way to the end of the season, the closest he’s ever come to a World Championship.

“Nico has a good advantage in terms of points,” the Spaniard told ESPN.

“But the Championship is long and we saw Lewis stopping with some reliability problems sometimes so it can happen to Nico as well and equal the championship quite quickly for Lewis.

“Definitely it is a good opportunity for Nico and sometimes you feel it is your only opportunity for the Championship.

“It happened to Mark as well in 2010, it’s some kind of one-off and sometimes it’s difficult to execute at the end when the last races are coming.

“But so far I think he’s enjoying a good advantage, good performance, he’s in good form, so he’s enjoying it.”