Renault hopes for more tomorrow
Today’s qualifying session saw Renault F1 Team drivers Fernando Alonso and Nelson Piquet qualify in 12th and 17th places respectively for tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix. The team is disappointed about their performance, but believes that they will do better during tomorrow's race.
FREE PRACTICE 3
Fernando Alonso: 18 laps, P17, 1:27.357
Run 1: 7 laps, new prime tyres
Run 2: 6 laps, same prime tyres, changes to suspension and front wing
Run 3: 4 laps, new option tyres
Nelson Piquet: 22 laps, P19, 1:27.739
Run 1: 7 laps, new prime tyres
Run 2: 7 laps, new prime tyres, change to suspension and front wing
Run 3: 7 laps, new option tyres
QUALIFYING
Fernando Alonso P12, 1:26.504
Q1 2 runs on new option tyres
Q2 2 runs on new option tyres, change to the tyre pressures on the second run
Fernando Alonso: “We arrived here to fight for the podium, but this might not be the case tomorrow. We were very close to Q3 times, only two or three tenths of a second off, but I made a mistake as I tried to make up some time in the final corner. I’m disappointed as I thought I could be 5th or 6th on the grid. However, last year I started in 12th and got up to 4th in the race so I’m still confident that tomorrow, if we have an eventful race, I can get a good result.”
Nelson Piquet, P17, 1 :26.598
Q1 3 runs on new option tyres
Nelson Piquet Jr.: "I knew it was going to be a bit tough today, after a difficult weekend for us. At the start of qualifying the car seemed okay, but then I started to struggle. This track is not one I enjoy particularly. I was pushing a little too hard and made a mistake in the last sector.”
Technical Summary with Pat Symonds, Executive Director of Engineering
Track conditions
“They were quite good today with reasonably high temperatures despite the fact that qualifying took place late in the day. That did not give us any problems.”
Performance summary
"We are obviously disappointed, but the performance of all the cars is very close and our position in qualifying doesn’t necessarily reflect where we will finish in the race.”
Strategy and fuel load
“Our positions on the grid will certainly require us to use quite a conventional strategy as will be shown tomorrow by the fuel loads that we choose.”
Outlook for the race
“I think that we’re not too far from the teams that we should be fighting and we hope that our KERS system will bring us a genuine advantage during race conditions tomorrow.”
