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Manama - World champion Fernando Alonso has targeted nothing less than a victory to kickstart his title defence as the Formula One World Championship begins this weekend with the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The 24-year-old Renault driver made history last year by becoming the youngest title-winner in the long history of the sport, and says victory in the first of 18 Grand Prixs would be the ideal way to start the season.
"Defending a championship is going to be harder than winning the first one because there is a lot more added pressure on you," Alonso said.
"Testing has been going well though and I think definitely we can fight for a win in Bahrain and if we do that then we can fight for the championship as well."
With Alonso's departure to McLaren in 2007 confirmed last December, much of the development work on this year's car will fall to his teammate Giancarlo Fisichella.
The Italian though, a winner of two races, is confident of putting the world champion under more pressure this year than last.
Raikkonen has endured a difficult winter
Meanwhile, Alonso's closest rival for the title last year, Kimi Raikkonen, of Finland, has endured a difficult winter of testing and has encountered numerous gearbox failures on his McLaren.
His Colombian teammate Juan Pablo Montoya is almost certain to challenge Raikkonen more than last year now that he has fully recovered from a shoulder injury that blighted much of his 2005 campaign.
After a disastrous season in which they only won one race, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher is determined to bounce back to the front in what could be his final year in Formula One.
Seven-time world champion Schumacher finished only third in last year's championship and scored 71 points less than champion Alonso.
"The testing has been good and Bridgestone have got the tyres working the way we need them to, so I think we should do better this year than last."
The man who might well be wearing the biggest smile when the teams leave the Middle East nation following Sunday's race, is Honda's Jenson Button.
Button is determined to break his duck
Button, who scored points in all of the last 10 races of 2005 when the team were known as BAR, has set the pace in more official tests than any other driver this winter.
The 25-year-old Englishman has been surprised that Honda seem to have come out best in adapting to the new 2.4 litre V8 engine rules and is determined to win his first Grand Prix at his 101st attempt in Bahrain.
"We want to be challenging for wins," said Button. "If you are going to try to be challenging for the championship and for wins during the year, you need to start at the first race, and that's Bahrain.
"We are more ready than we have been in any other year, so, to go to Bahrain, you have to say will be hoping to challenge for a win. We will be very disappointed if that isn't the case."
