(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-20 09:50

MILAN - Double Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso is 60 percent certain to rejoin Renault next season, team boss Flavio Briatore said on Monday.

Spaniard Alonso split with McLaren this month after a bitter and controversial season where he finished third in the drivers championship.

"Renault will definitely have different drivers next year. There is a 60 percent chance Alonso will be with us," Briatore was quoted as saying on radio show GrParlamento by Italian news service ANSA.

Briatore's words appear to spell the end at Renault for drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen

"We have an advantage (in taking Alonso) because we know him. Between today and the day after tomorrow it will be decided," Italian Briatore added.

Toyota announced earlier on Monday that Germany's Timo Glock will race for them next season, replacing compatriot Ralf Schumacher and further narrowing Alonso's options.

Alonso left Renault for McLaren last year after winning back-to-back drivers' titles with the French team.

"When you marry, split up and get back together it is not easy," Briatore said.

He also commented on Formula One's new spy probe in which Renault have been charged with unauthorised possession of confidential McLaren information. The team have suspended an employee who had data on "old-style floppy discs".

"When we discovered everything, we informed McLaren and (world governing body) the FIA. We found out who had brought these disks. When you have a thousand employees it is difficult to notice what is happening," he said.