Formula One news

Double points finish for Renault

The Renault F1 team reached the halfway point of the 2007 season with a double points finish for Heikki Kovalainen and Giancarlo Fisichella, in seventh and eighth positions respectively.

The drivers started from the same positions, and ran aggressive two-stop strategies. However, Heikki and Giancarlo struggled with tyre performance at different points of the race, costing them time relative to the team's rivals in the constructors' championship, BMW. However, this was just the second time in the 2007 season that both Renault drivers had finished in the points, and the basic pace of the R27 confirmed the improvements that have been made to the car in recent weeks.

Heikki Kovalainen said about his British Grand Prix: "This was a race of two halves for me. I had a good start and managed to get past Ralf, which meant I was running P5 after Massa stalled on the grid. Quite quickly, though, the rear tyre performance began to drop and I was really struggling with the car, especially in the slow speed sections. I used hard tyres for the second stint too, and the same thing happened. It was only really in the final stint, when I got onto the soft compound, that the car felt better and more consistent on a long run - and strangely, it seemed to be the opposite for Giancarlo. To finish P7 is not where the team wants to be, but there is no magic recipe for going forward from here."

Giancarlo Fisichella said: "I had a tough race this afternoon. I got Ralf at the start, but Nick passed me in the first corner. However, I managed to get a good run on him through Becketts, and overtook him on the run to Stowe. The first stint was pretty good, and the second one too, when I was using the hard tyres. Then we stopped for the final time and put on the soft tyres - and the car felt like it had much less grip. It was very inconsistent, hard to drive, it was almost like I had a problem with the car."

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