Former two-time world champion Fernando Alonso has extended his contract with Ferrari until the end of the 2016 season, the Italian Formula One stable announced on Thursday.

Spaniard Alonso, who won the driver's title in 2005 and 2006 with Renault, said: "I am very happy to have reached this agreement. I immediately felt comfortable within Ferrari and now it feels to me like a second family.

"I have the utmost faith in the men and women who work in Maranello and in those who lead them: it is therefore natural for me to decide to extend my relationship in the long term like this, with a team at which I will no doubt end my Formula 1 career one day."