Alonso secures 8th place for Renault

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F1 Grand Prix, GP Bahrain, Bahrain International Circuitbh

Renault have secured another point in the championship thanks to Fernando Alonso finishing in eight place, even though his fuel pump failed and he consequently suffered dehydration. Nelson Piquet also drove a strong race, but still the team is disappointed to come away with only 1 single point.

Fernando Alonso, R29-03, P8:
First stint: 16 laps on soft tyres
Second stint: 21 laps on soft tyres
Third stint: 19 laps on hard tyres
"We did our maximum today. The start of the race was not perfect and we lost a position which put me down to eighth. After that nothing unusual happened during the race and there were no retirements so we were eighth fastest and we finished eighth. We always aim to score points, but we only scored one point and so we need to improve at the next Grand Prix."

Nelson Piquet, T29-01, P10:
First stint: 23 laps on soft tyres
Second stint: 19 laps on soft tyres
Third stint: 14 laps on hard tyres
"I had a strong race and the car was good. It would have been better if I could have made the first stint shorter and the second stint longer, but overall I'm happy with the day as we had a solid race, which is what we needed. Now we must to concentrate on improving our performance for the next race."

Flavio Briatore, Managing Director
"We had higher expectations for this weekend but sadly we have come away with only one point. Fernando did not have a good start and this compromised the rest of his race despite his best efforts. Nelson had an excellent race, moving up from 15th and driving aggressively and consistently. It's just a shame that he missed out on the points."

Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
"It was a very tough race today: the conditions were very hot and the race was intense all the way through the field. Fernando lost a lot of ground with a poor start and in such a tight field it was hard to recover from that, but our final position probably is a reflection of our competitiveness. Nelson had a good race today, consistently lapping close to Fernando's times, but for the upcoming races we need to improve the car to turn this sort of big effort from the whole team into solid points."

Remi Taffin, Head of Engine Operations
"Today we scored one point, but it's not a great reward for our efforts over the weekend. Everybody has worked really hard in the team and both drivers drove good races, but we only finished eighth and tenth. I think that our race was determined at the first corner where we lost a lot of ground and unfortunately that put us in a difficult situation. Nevertheless we are still moving in the right direction and that's good to see."