Alonso: Beating Ferrari won't be easy

Fernando Alonso admits it could be difficult for McLaren to beat Kimi Raikkonen to the victory at Sunday's Australian GP.

Raikkonen, who like Alonso is making his debut for his new team this weekend, claimed pole position for the season-opening race in a time of 1:26.07, which put him 0.42s ahead of Alonso.

However, despite the rather large deficit over a single lap, Alonso isn't ready to give up on the race victory, although he does concede that it won't be easy beating Raikkonen come Sunday afternoon.

"They have been very strong here in the long runs," Alonso said during Saturday's post-qualifying press conference.

"I think to be honest we have to say they should be quicker tomorrow and we should be having a little bit hard time if we want to beat them.

"We saw today Felipe (Massa) stopped with a gearbox problem and it is 58 laps and you have to be there. We have to push them and fingers crossed we will be on the podium tomorrow."

Massa suffered gearbox problems in Saturday's qualifying, which saw him finish 16th on the grid.

And the Brazilian's problems have led to Raikkonen being cautious about his chances of claiming the victory in Australia.

"I think we have a good package, we are confident for the race and as long as everything works well and we don't have any problems we should be okay, but so many things can happen," the Finn said.

"We do the best we can and hopefully we can win, but for sure the others will try and beat us. It will be close but we will do the best we can."

The two lead drivers, though, could come under some pressure from BMW's Nick Heidfeld, who claimed third place on the Melbourne grid.

"I am happier after speaking to some people in the team who assure me we have done the right thing," he said.

"It was quite good, and with similar parts in the test it was a concern. We lost time in testing which wasn't ideal but tomorrow is what counts."

And although the German is hoping for a good race, he believes Renault's drivers, Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen, could easily get into the mix on Sunday afternoon.

"My view is that Ferrari are still ahead, we thought that before we came here, but I am a bit surprised Renault was not a bit quicker today, I expected them to be there as well," the German added.

"But we will see in the race tomorrow. We don't know what fuel other people are running but we can be pleased."