'Alonso is as good as Hamilton and Vettel'

Sky Sports Formula One pundit Mark Hughes believes that Fernando Alonso is as good a driver as recently-crowned world champion Lewis Hamilton, and believes the Spaniard's pursuit of the 'triple crown' of motor racing will leave as big an impact on the sport as claiming more world championships.

Alonso has two Formula One titles to his name compared to Hamilton's four, but the former has won the Monaco Grand Prix and will likely compete in the Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans, where he will have the opportunity to claim the triple crown.

Hughes believes that Alonso is aiming to make his own unique mark on the sport, as gaining as much world championships as Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel is out of reach, even if he is as talented as that duo.

"He clearly values how he will go down in history," Hughes said to Sky Sports.

"He recognises he's 36 years old and probably isn't going to win five world championships to be ahead of Seb [Vettel] so is going to have to put his mark down in history in some other way.

"He's absolutely of the stature of Hamilton or Vettel."

Hughes was responding to previous comments made by his Sky Sports colleague, Marc Priestley, who thinks that Alonso could and should have claimed more F1 titles if he had joined other teams.

"If he made different decisions in his career he could have won 10 world championships," Priestley said.

"He got two at Renault and we now know that Red Bull offered him a deal - Christian Horner said that recently - and he could have been there during that four-year run of titles."

Hughes went on to say that the lack of titles will likely have played a part in Alonso's decision to pursue wins in the Indy 500 and Le Mans.

"So the only way he can now put that right is come outside of that and say 'well, I'm going to win the Indy 500, the Le Mans 24 Hours and I'm a double world F1 champion'."

Alonso has not won the world championship for over a decade, while his last Grand Prix victory came four years ago with Ferrari.