Alonso is fighting a rearguard title battle against Schumacher

The Spaniard wants to extend his points lead over Michael Schumacher, but he is also keen to inflict the pain of a home defeat on the German's Ferrari team.

"This year I have won in Silverstone, in Monaco, in Spain - and for sure I want to win Monza, too," he said.

"It is one of the legendary tracks so it would be special, and even more so to beat Ferrari in their home race."

Alonso extended his championship lead to 12 points by finishing second ahead of Schumacher at the last race in Turkey.

But he admits that victory at Monza will be tough - Ferrari have been the pace-setters in F1 for the last three months.

We have had a strange summer, so it was good to prove to everybody that the car is competitive regardless Fernando Alonso

"There is only one target for the Renault team at the moment - to finish in front of Ferrari," he said.

"They have been quite dominant in the last races, so beating them means winning races. That is our focus."

Alonso has taken encouragement from his result in Turkey, which was won by Schumacher's team-mate Felipe Massa.

He finished second even though the team were prevented from racing their "mass dampers", a device that aids tyre grip but which has been declared illegal by the sport's bosses.

"I think the team did a fantastic job in Turkey," Alonso said.

"We have had a strange summer, with the mass damper decision and some poor results, so it was good to prove to everybody that the car is competitive regardless.

"We really fought hard in that race, and it shows we are ready to fight with Ferrari all the way to the end of the championship."

Renault feel hard done by, especially because governing body the FIA had declared the mass damper legal when the team first decided to run it at the end of last season.

The events of the summer have made us hungrier to prove we can do the job Bob Bell Renault technical director

But technical director Bob Bell said the ban had made the team more determined to win the title than ever.

"Clearly, the team suffered from the fact that the loss of the mass damper coincided with the summer test ban," Bell said.

"We have now had the chance to reoptimise the R26, and the events of the summer have made us hungrier to prove we can do the job.

"Our points-scoring momentum might have dipped, but importantly there is no loss of momentum in the team's effort to put out a winning car at each race.