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Alonso Urges Title Rivals to Cope with Pressure

The past two races in Singapore and Mount Fuji have only strengthen common belief that title contenders Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa are fully aware of the pressure on their shoulders in the closing stages of the 2008 season. Being so close to winning a maiden championship title in Formula 1 is certainly no easy job for either of them.

And that could probably explain their chaotic performances in the past couple of races. Double world champion Fernando Alonso himself argued that the two drivers seem more focused on not making mistakes rather than winning races.

“More than the pressure is also the worry about making a mistake or that something goes wrong in the car. You think constantly during the weekend that everything has to go right and you cannot do any mistake driving, or you cannot make a mistake with the car in terms of breaking any part. You spend too much effort thinking that anything can go wrong and this is putting some pressure to you every time,” admitted Alonso.

Felipe Massa had to pay tribute to Ferrari's traffic-light-pit-stop system failure in Singapore and finish the race with no points, while also pulling some suicidal maneuvers at Fuji Speedway for a  lucky and steward-based 2-point performance overall. Hamilton didn't perform too well either, scoring a 3rd place finish in Singapore and failing to get anything on the scoreboard in Japan.

With two rounds to go in the championship, Massa seems to have a head start on his rival despite the 5 points separating the two in the overall classification. Ferrari have scored back-to-back wins at Interlagos in 2006 and 2007, while China is yet to be 'conquered' by McLaren – whose drivers haven't scored a single win in 4 races at the Shanghai International Circuit.

Nevertheless, Alonso warned both teams that anything could happen in these last two races, despite the odds. Massa's engine failure in Hungary and unlucky pit stop at Singapore are proof enough: “every race will be difficult to manage and unpredictable to the last moment in Brazil when you take the flag. Massa was winning the race very clear in Hungary and on the last lap you have engine failure, you lose ten points, and this can happen to anyone. And it maybe happens to Lewis as well”.

Of course, its no rocket science to tell whom Alonso will rule for in the last two races, as he expressed it himself a few days ago: “if I can help, I will help Massa”.
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