Alonso is not looking over his shoulder at Schumacher just yet

Schumacher's victory in the race that was boycotted by seven teams has moved him to within 25 points of Alonso.

But Renault driver Alonso said: "He's back because he scored 10 points at Indianapolis and eight in Canada.

"But we know we were more competitive than Ferrari at Indy and in front of him in Canada when we retired."

Alonso retired from the Canadian race after hitting a wall and damaging his suspension while under pressure from McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya.

But Montoya and Alonso's team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella also failed to finish in Montreal, promoting McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen to the lead and Schumacher to second.

The McLarens are a bit quicker than us and we have to develop the car Renault's Fernando Alonso

Raikkonen is in second place in the championship, three points ahead of Schumacher.

"Fisi, Montoya and me all retired in Canada and we did a big favour to the others," Alonso said.

The 23-year-old Spaniard said he was confident he could hold off the challenge of Raikkonen, even though the Finn's McLaren has been the quickest car in F1 for the last few races.

He admitted that "the McLarens are a bit quicker than us and we have to develop the car".

But Alonso added: "We only did half of the season and the most important race is the final one, but the car is performing very well. We have the chance and we have a good gap."