Alonso is a crowd-puller at home

London: Formula One championship leader Fernando Alonso can expect a record crowd at his home Spanish Grand Prix next month with all tickets sold already..

The Circuit de Catalunya website said the May 8 race was a sell-out with more than 115,000 people expected on race Sunday alone. ?This has never happened since Formula One?s debut in our country in 1951,? it said.

Alonso has won the last two races and is chasing Renault?s fourth in a row at the San Marino Grand Prix next weekend.

Even if he fails to score any points at Imola, the 23-year-old will still be sure of leading the championship to Barcelona.

He has 26 points to Italian Jarno Trulli?s 16 for Toyota while Ferrari?s seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher has so far scored just two in three races.

More than 100,000 spectators turned up for last year?s Spanish Grand Prix, won by Schumacher. Alonso, the only Spanish driver to win a race and lead the championship, finished second at the circuit for Renault in 2003.

Renault also hope to boost Italian Giancarlo Fisichella in front of his home fans.

Fisichella could get first use of a lighter and more powerful ?B specification? engine that the championship-leading team had not planned to introduce until the fifth round in Spain next month.

Engines must last for two successive grands prix under Formula One?s new rules but can be changed without penalty if a driver fails to finish the previous race, as Fisichella did in Bahrain on April 3.

Rob White, Renault?s engine technical director, said the team had sped up work on the revised engine so that it could be an option in Sunday?s San Marino Grand Prix. (Reuters)