Our first reward - Fisico

The Italian ING Renault F1 Team driver, Giancarlo Fisichella, feels that today’s result rewards weeks of effort even if it’s at the end of the race and not at the end of qualifying that you score points.

"Yes. Our aim was to finish ahead of the 2 BMWs but we only managed to achieve half of it. I think a 100% Renault 3rd row at Magny-Cours is good news. It’s also the first reward for all the team members who’ve been working flat out for weeks now to overcome the problems we’ve had since the start of the season. And it’s only the beginning! We’ve got a lot of new things in the pipeline. A new front wing should appear in Hungary."

"It was understeering a bit yesterday and even more this morning and I felt confident straight away in qualifying. Yesterday, we said were optimistic and we were right; In free practice, we had a lot fuel on board and our times weren’t great but we knew what we were capable of."

"I think we’ve got a good strategy and the car’s been very consistent on the long runs during practice. Our aim for the moment is to catch BMW in the constructors’ classification. I think we’ll be able to close the gap tomorrow if everything goes according to plan. "