Fernando Alonso says that he never expected to be the early pacesetter in the 2010 drivers championship, as the two-time world champion heads for this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix topping the standings by four points.
Alonso won his first race for his new Ferrari team, and followed that up with fourth place in Australia last weekend to leave him four points clear of his team mate Felipe Massa in the standings, with Australian GP winner Jenson Button a further two points back.
And Alonso admitted to the British press ahead of the third race of the season in Malaysia that he hadn't been expecting to get such a good start to the year, given the struggles that Ferrari had before he joined them in 2009.
"It's been an incredible start to the season. I definitely didn't think I'd be leading the championship after two races. This situation is way more than I had expected," he grinned to UK right-wing nutcase paper the Daily Mail.
"In Bahrain and Australia we showed we are competitive at the highest level. We can only be pleased and proud of what we have done so far, not just at the track, but also back at the factory over the winter."
He added that: "The F10 has proven to be very good, even on a semi-street circuit like Albert Park. It's an easy car to drive. It is reasonably easy to find a good set-up for any type of track. On top of that, it is very consistent, in that its handling doesn't change much between qualifying and the race.
"That should be a very important factor over the course of the year as there is a world of difference between trying to do a quick time with a minimum fuel load on Saturday afternoon and starting the race with a full tank on Sunday.
"Add in the factor that the car is not too hard on its tyres and that completes the package. I'm not too sure exactly where we are compared to the others, but one thing is for sure, we've definitely got off on the right foot."
He did guard against any complaceny though, saying that the team needed to carry on pushing from the good start that they had made.
"There's no time to relax. Our target now is simple: to carry on doing what we have done in the first two races. It won't be easy, but we must trust in our ability to get the job done," Alonso muttered.
Ferrari boss Stefano Domenciali also hailed the team's performance in the opening two races, even admitting that he had been slightly disappointed with their result in Melbourne.
"We are happy with the Melbourne result, even if, on Sunday morning, we might have expected a slightly better one," he said to Ferrari’s official website. "Considering what happened in the race, we can be pleased with finishing third and fourth, partly because our closest rivals either failed to score, or at least did not pick up many points."
Ferrari sit top of the pile in the constructors standings after two races on 70 points, 16 points clear of McLaren and some 52 ahead of the season's pacesetters Red Bull.
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