Alonso showing signs of pressure?

Budapest: Renault have denied that Fernando Alonso is showing signs of pressure as Ferrari's Michael Schumacher eats into the world champion's Formula One title lead.

"Fernando's a remarkably calm character, extremely laid back," head of engineering Pat Symonds told a Hungarian Grand Prix news conference on Friday.

"I think if he was ever going to feel the pressure and show the pressure, it would have been last year."

Alonso, who leads Schumacher by 11 points, became Formula One's youngest champion at the age of 24 last season with two races to spare after seeing off the challenge of McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen.

Both Alonso and Raikkonen, who had what was generally recognised as the quicker car, won seven races each but the McLaren driver suffered from his team's lack of reliability earlier in the year.

"Fernando remained calm throughout last year to come through at the end with the championship, and I've seen no change in him this year," said Symonds.

"He is very, very calm. He is calculating and he's thinking about his job and working as hard as the rest of us."

Fears have been raised about Alonso's state of mind, despite Symonds's assertion.

The Spaniard shook his fist at Schumacher when they almost collided in the pit lane during qualifying at Hockenheim last weekend.

On Friday he showed another flash of temper when he gesticulated at Red Bull's Robert Doornbos for holding him up during free practice.

The Spaniard then appeared to slow deliberately in front of the Dutchman.

Schumacher had been 25 points behind Alonso after the Canadian Grand Prix in June but the 37-year-old German has won the last three races to revive his hopes of a record eighth championship.

Symonds said he felt 'quite despondent' about Schumacher's recent successes, just as he was sure that Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn felt the same about Alonso's earlier four wins in a row.

"The fight's not over," he warned, with Brawn sitting next to him. "We had a good day, today. The car looks good here. We've got plenty coming for it, we're working very hard on it and we're going to take the fight to the end."