Horner: Alonso will hit trouble

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has predicted that Fernando Alonso's championship challenge will hit trouble at some point during the current F1 season.

The Ferrari driver stormed to his second win of the season in Valencia at the weekend, meaning he is now the only driver to have won more than once in 2012 and is also the only driver to have scored points in every race following Lewis Hamilton's retirement late on.

Alonso now leads Mark Webber by 20 points in the title race heading into the British Grand Prix at Silverstone but Horner - who saw Sebastian Vettel forced into retirement while leading - said the Spaniard would hit trouble at some point during the year as the title race heads towards its conclusion.

"Fernando has done a tremendous job, scoring in every single race, but statistics say he has to have one bad weekend in 20," he was quoted by Sky Sports. "It will hopefully balance itself out over the course of the season.

"Others had difficult days as well - Lewis did not finish - but we have extended our lead in the constructors' championship by a further eight points."

Alonso's victory came when Vettel was forced to stop with alternator failure and Horner admitted there was disappointment at the fact that his own team had missed out on a third straight Valencia win.

"We were in a commanding position, so it was very disappointing to have a DNF," he said. "Together with Renault I'm sure we'll learn from it and hopefully we will not see a repeat.

"The comfort we must take out of Seb's performance was that he was in complete control and had tremendous pace. We know we have a quick car, and we have had three poles from the last three races, and that is encouraging."